


Of Towering Pines and Fallen Stars

by Ibelieveinahappilyeverafter



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, BillDip, Dragon Bill Cipher, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, Gen, Human Bill Cipher, M/M, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, Time Travel, Town Guardian Bill Cipher, billdip husband au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-04-18 06:32:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14207196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibelieveinahappilyeverafter/pseuds/Ibelieveinahappilyeverafter
Summary: Sometimes towering pine trees can fall to nothing and other times fallen stars can rise to be everything. Family is more important than we think and deals always come with a price - even if it’s a price we thought already paid.Unconnected Gravity Falls drabbles and short stories inspired by prompts from both my patrons, my friends, my love, and other various places around the world. At the beginning of each story will be a short description and everything else you need to know about it, so why not give them a read and hunt for the truth behind the mysteries?I promise you won’t regret it.





	1. Glitter

 

Title: Glitter

Alternate Universe: BillDip Husband AU / Twins Dipper and Mabel have become demons and now live with Bill Cipher and their adopted son, Toby, who became a demon the same way Dipper and Mabel did.

Pairing: Established BillDip

Rating: G+

Inspired By: Drabble Request: Toby, glitter, and happiness

Summary: Toby Pines learns the secret to happiness and sets out to make sure his family becomes as happy as possible! This might involve covering their prized possessions in glitter, but there's something to be said for dedication, right?

::

"And just what are  _you_ doing, Stardust?" Freezing from where he had been trying to shuffle past the Mystery Shack cash register without being noticed, a young Toby Pines looked up hesitantly to see a grinning Bill Cipher. "You wouldn't be up to anything  _nefarious_ , would you?"

"That depends." Toby hugged his jars of glitter close, trying to keep them hidden under his hoodie. "What does nefarious mean?"

"That means  _you_ , my little Stardust, are up to no good." Walking out from behind the register, Bill leaned down and tapped Toby on the nose, the young boy unable to resist wrinkling it. There also might have been a laugh that slipped out. "What do you have hidden under that jacket of yours, hm?"

"Stuff. And things." Regretfully, he was still new enough with his magic that he couldn't do the things his dads were able to, like turn into shadows and teleport a hundred miles away in the blink of an eye. It would sure help now. "Secret stuff and things."

"Mhm. Should I be telling Pine Tree about your little foray into thievery?" Why did Bill have to use such big words? Toby may have been smart, but it wasn't like he understood  _everything_. He was only ten, after all.

"Ye… Nn… I plead the fifth!" That always worked for his Grandpa Stan, right? It seemed to work for Toby well enough since Bill choked on a laugh, Toby quickly taking the opportunity to flee. "I'll pay it back don't worry!"

Right. That part of the mission was successful, but he still had a long way to go in order to be able to do what he needed to! Step two.

He needed to steal Dipper's hat.

Near two hours and multiple failed attempts and tries later, however, showed that it was far easier said than done. It seemed as if Dipper  _never_ took his hat off except for when he was showering - which was rare - or asleep - which was even rarer. Toby needed a way to get that hat.

Think, Pines. What was the best way to get Dipper to give up his hat for a short period of time- Oh. That would work. Taking his own hat off, Toby very carefully placed it under his bed, putting a spell on it to keep it from being found too quickly.

Heading down to the kitchen, Toby channeled as many sad memories and thoughts as possible, something he had a lot of practice in. "Da- Daddy?" Toby didn't get much further than that before Dipper was sweeping him into his arms and hugging him close.

"Toby? Hey, baby, what's wrong? Did you hurt yourself? Is it your magic?" Heh, this was too easy. The others would be harder, but Dipper had always been weak to him.

"I lost my hat." Toby felt a little bad, but the lying was for a good cause! "Do you think Papa will hate me?" Not that Bill ever would, but… Well, positive reinforcement never hurt.

"Oh, sweetie, of course not." Dipper brought Toby even closer, running a hand through his hair and oh. Oh, that felt nice. "We'll find it, okay? I'm sure it's around the Shack somewhere."

"Okay, Daddy." Toby sniffled, trying not to grin as he felt Dipper's own hat placed on top his head. It was even harder to not grin when he felt the burst of warm and affectionate magic that coated the hat and flowed into him.

"Here, why don't you wear mine until we can find yours. That sound good?" He hadn't even had to ask.

"Sounds great." Toby hugged Dipper close before kissing his cheek, snuggling in close. "Can I watch you make lunch?"

"I'll do you one better. You can be my taste tester." Okay, he could afford to spend a little time being a taste tester. He wouldn't want to hurt Dipper's feelings, after all!

::

"Okay." Toby nodded to himself as he stared at his gathered items. He had a spare shirt from Soos he had taken out of the man's bag, a plaid shirt from Wendy that she had left behind the counter, a favorite stuffed animal of Rosy's he bought off with candy, Stan's favorite hat that he earned through gambling, the sweater that Mabel wore most often that he stole from the dryer, Dipper's hat, and Bill's wedding ring - that one had been a  _pain_ to get a hold of.

Gathering all the items together, Toby grabbed the three tubs of glitter he had  _borrowed_ from the shelves in the gift shop and unscrewed the lids. Using a bottle of spray glue - courtesy of Mabel - Toby coated all the items in it before dumping all three jars of glitter over all the items until they did nothing but sparkle even  _without_ light on them.

"Toby! Dinner is ready!" Perfect timing, too! Gathering all the items into his arms, and maybe using a bit of magic to make them balance better, Toby hopped down all of the steps and headed for the kitchen, dumping all of the items onto the kitchen table.

"I found my hat, Daddy. And some other stuff." Hm. Everyone was silent… That must have been a good sign!

"Toby, not that I'm against this in any way, but is there a reason this is all coated with glitter?" Mabel was inspecting her sweater with a critical eye as Rosy chewed on the arm of the glitterfied bear. It was probably okay for her to do that. Maybe.

"Yup! There's a reason." Sorting through the items, Toby grabbed Bill's wedding ring and crawled into his lap, holding it out for him. "I had to borrow it for a bit. Sorry."

"Oh, I knew you had it," Bill grinned, slipping it back on and seeming delighted at the sparkles. "Tracking spells." Darn it! He should have realized that sooner.

"You 'found' your hat, huh?" Dipper was looking at his own with a raised eyebrow, giving it a small shake. A poof of glitter exploding from it was the reaction. "Why?"

"Because I want you all to be happy!" Oh, hm. Maybe that would require a bit more of an explanation, judging by the looks he was seeing. "Aunt Mabel said that glitter is magic and has the ability to make someone happy. I figured if I used enough of it on all the things you use most, it'll make you  _really_ happy!

"She did, huh?" Dipper shot a look to his sister, Mabel only pulling the sweater on and causing another explosion of glitter. She looked very pleased with the results. "This is never going to come out, is it?"

"Nope! I used super-strength extra sticky spray on glue! That way you'll always be happy."

"You know what, Stardust?" Bill pulled him closer as Toby watched the other members of his family put on their glittered objects, all of them laughing or smiling. "I think your magic is already working."


	2. Wednesday Drabble - Time's Touch

Title: Wednesday Drabble - Time's Touch

Alternate Universe: Post Canon / Altered/Original past of Bill Cipher

Pairing: Pre-Relationship BillDip (can be read without context of shipping)

Rating: T

Inspired By: Tumblr Ask -  _prompt idea: Dipper messes up a spell and instead of that what he wanted, he somehow opens a lil portal with someone getting teleported into his room. But not just someone, its the person bill was before he turned into a demon._

Summary: Dipper, while practicing some magic on his own, might have read a spell wrong. He also might have summoned a human from the past rather than the pen he was aiming for. Totally fine, though, totally fine, he just had to get him home, except… He kind of doesn't want to send him back.

::

This was the most challenging fight Dipper had been in since he was a gangly teeanger trying to control his voice cracks and get his acne under control, but it was a fight that he had to win if he wanted to continue doing better and  _being_ better. There was no option for failure when… No. Failure was very much not an option this time around.

God, what was he even so afraid of! He was twenty-three, a recent college graduate, and now mentoring under one of the great minds to live (his great-uncle Ford)! He was back in Gravity Falls where he belonged and he knew that everything would turn out okay. He should not at all be afraid of something like  _this_.

"For the last time, Mabel, would you  _move_!" Then again, nothing was more terrifying than a headstrong twin sister who was sitting on the stairs to the attic and curled around the book Dipper  _had_ been reading.

"No way, bro-bro! Grunkles One and Two both told me to not let you practice magic without supervision." Dammit! It was the  _perfect_ time to practice now that his Grunkles, both of who tended to worry way too much, were out bonding and monster hunting with Fiddleford.

"Oh, come on, Mabes! How am I ever going to get better at my magic, which I'm only  _just now_ starting to understand, when none of you will ever let me practice!" It wasn't like he was going to go crazy and summon an army of the dead!

"Uh huh. And what happened the first time you used magic, Mr. Smarty Pants." He had gone crazy and summoned an army of the dead. But-! "I'm under orders, Dip dop, so no can do."

"I'm just going to be reading and practicing a few Summoning charms! It's the most basic thing. I just say a few words and a pen floats from the other side of the room and into my hand."

"Last time you said something was 'the most basic thing' we ended up in the middle of the lake in nothing but our underwear." Okay, granted that- "In the middle of the afternoon."

"I apologized for that." Besides, Dipper had managed to make sure no one saw them. Although he really  _had_ deserved Mabel hitting him with anything she could reach for the next twenty hours. "Come on, Mabel, I'm never going to get better at this if I don't practice."

"Nope." Mabel clutched the book even tighter, smirking when Dipper dropped his head in defeat. Counting out seven seconds, Dipper tackled Mabel to the ground, the two screaming and rolling around like they were twelve all over again.

Now, in polite society he probably wouldn't have tackled his twin sister, but this was Gravity Falls and summer rules applied here. Those rules meant that it was no holding back, there were no rules, and it was every twin for themself in personal disputes.

So Dipper squirmed and fought and was very careful to not hurt her as he managed to grab the book out of Mabel's tight grip before he darted up the first few stairs, slamming the door shut behind him and whispering a spell that  _should_ melt the lock so it couldn't be opened.

Catching his breath from the rough tumble and the adrenaline now making his heart pound like crazy, Dipper waited until he heard Mabel's near shriek of defeat after all her banging and rattling of the door. It was a good sound. "Who's the Alpha Twin now!"

"Have fun blowing up the attic and getting open a door with a ruined lock!" Mabel shouted back and, shit. He had kind of locked himself in, hadn't he? Oh, well. Worth it. The door rattled with what sounded like a kick, Dipper sticking his tongue out as he climbed up the rest of the steps and oh, jeez, it was  _dusty_. While their room was in the attic, this was the  _attic_ attic. It wasn't very big, but it would at least give Dipper enough private space to experiment with the Summoning charm and a few other things. Hopefully.

"Hmph. Mabel doesn't know what she's talking about." It wasn't like he was twelve and just reading a spell straight from a book with no idea what it did. He was a mature adult! Mostly. "It'll be fine." Believing what one said out loud was very important. Now if only Dipper could  _believe_ \- The door was just broken open.

Hesitantly and slowly looking up, Dipper locked eyes with Mabel, the woman staring at him with her own eyes narrowed from over the edge of the steps. Slowly and carefully she set down a cup of what looked like hot chocolate and a bag of Dipper's favorite chips. She then silently retreated.

Crawling over after a few seconds and making sure nothing was poisoned, Dipper raised his voice down the stairs, "Love you!" He had a good twin sister. Right, magic.

Flipping through the old and tattered book, Dipper read over it slowly and carefully and, really, these were kind of basic spells. Granted the book was old and a little worn, but old just meant it was magic that had been tested! Hopefully! It was from Grunkle Ford's study so he was probably okay overall.

It took a few minutes of flipping through pages and getting distracted before Dipper finally found something that looked promising, which, yeah, promising was good.

"Okay, okay, this one looks simple enough." It was a written out charm for a Summoning that only needed him to take three deep breaths, say a short few lines, and point to whatever object he wanted to be brought to him. Plus, the lines were in Latin! Dipper knew Latin!

Clearing his throat, Dipper took three slow and deep breaths, frowning as he noticed the rough, worn off and chewed edges that showed mice had gotten to the book. Hopefully it was just mice and not something worse.

He should probably use another spell since it looked like the last word had been a little chewed on, but, well, science and magic waited for no man! Besides, at worse he messed up and made a contained explosion that he could easily clean up and that would be that.

Dipper, of course, forgot that the world had something against him and often enjoyed laughing cruelly when something went horribly wrong.

As such, all he did was clear his throat, straighten his posture, and begin to speak the words slowly and carefully. He said them all perfectly until he got to the very last one, unsure of the last half the word, but, really. He couldn't have done too bad. In fact, he was fine!

It was all fine because he pointed at a pen across the room by the window seat and held his breath as he felt the tingle of magic flow from his entire body before concentrating in his finger and then shooting out and oh. That… It was not fine and that was not a Summoning charm.

Instead of a pen flying across the room and hitting him in the face, a blue  _portal_ appeared in the window seat. That wouldn't have been so bad if the portal hadn't shot out a  _person_ who bounced off the seat before landing on the floor in a jumble and oh, wasn't that just great! Not only had Dipper ruined someone's day, but he may have just caused someone to get a broken arm or something!

Shit, okay, he could fix this. If he just pushed the person back through the portal- Closed. The portal closed. Okay, great. That was just- Nice. Wonderful. Fucking  _great_. Okay, start small. "Uh, hi?" Too small.

The person looked up and oh, jeez, teenager. Well, kind of, he looked to at least be hovering around eighteen or nineteen. He also looked ready to jump out the window which, nope, no, bad idea random person please don't do that. "Wait, wait, wait, I can explain! Uh, just- Oh, jeez, I promise I'm not- I know this is weird- Okay, it's  _so_ totally weird, but, uh- Fuck- Shit, sorry- Shit- Sorry! I'm trying not to swear and it's not working and-"

"Well, you're not killing me." What? No?! Why would Dipper kill someone he didn't know?! "That means you're already better than the guy I was running from."

"Oh, um. Glad I could help, then?" The teenager no longer looked panicked and was instead settling back against the wall of the window seat, looking around curiously and seeming rather relaxed for someone who had just been pulled through space.

"Trust me, you did." There was something wrong with this one. He was way too calm. "Surprised to meet a wizard, but, you know, I've accepted that the weird tends to happens to me."

"Oh- Oh, no, I'm not- Oh, jeez, I'm not a wizard." At the  _look_ to the book still in his lap, Dipper flushed. "I'm not! I just am kinda new to the whole magic thing and you were supposed to be a pen." At the look that was edging towards panic, Dipper waved his hands around. "No! I meant I was supposed to  _summon_ a pen! The portal was a complete accident!"

"A happy one for me," the kid laughed, panic receding as if it was never there. Now that Dipper actually had time to not worry about him jumping out the window, he noticed the kid looked  _skinny_. Not even Dipper skinny, but more like starving skinny. Glancing to the hot chocolate and chips, Dipper cleared his throat.

"I'm going to slowly reach for this stuff at my side-" His words were drowned out with a wild laugh, Dipper huffing as he slid the cup and bag of chips over. "Here. An apology for startling you with the whole portal thing."

"Like I said, the weird happens." The hot chocolate was emptied pretty quickly, but the other was looking at the bag of chips very oddly. "What are these?"

"Chips?" Dipper raised his eyebrows, miming opening the bag with this hands because, really. They were chips. "You know. Food?"

"No chips look like that." The kid held the bag and copied the motion, struggling as if he had never done it before it opened and he pulled out one of the chips and shook his head. "These aren't chips."

"Uh, yes? They are?" Those were definitely chips. Did the portal addle the kid's head? Jeez, more to worry about. "Just eat one, you look like you haven't had lunch yet."

"Yeah. Right." Still staring, the other finally sighed and popped one into his mouth, eyes widening as it crunched. "Whoa."

"Seriously? How do you not know what chips are?" Dipper didn't really get an answer as the chips were now being devoured which, yeah, alright. Fair enough. "How old even are you?"

"Dunno, probably eighteen or nineteen." That was not reassuring. "So, dare I give my name to the mysterious wizard who summoned me?"

"Dipper is the name of the 'mysterious wizard.'" Frowning as the other  _choked_ on a chip from his laughter, Dipper huffed and, really, his name wasn't that funny. Odd, maybe, but not  _funny_. "Shut up."

"No, no, just- Didn't expect that. I was thinking something big and impressive." A few moments of pause, the other toying with the bag and- "William." William, huh? And he laughed at Dipper's name. "Most tend to call me Will."

"Nice to meet you, Will." Dipper smiled, Will returning it with one of his own. "Seriously, though, how do you not know what chips look like?"

"They're not! Chips are like this fried potato kind of thing!" Fried po- Oh. Oh, no, that- That could prove to be very bad. "I don't like that look."

"I, uh, well-" Please. Please let him be wrong about this. "You live in England?"

"Considering we're  _in_ England, yeah, I…" Will trailed off, eyes widening and yep, yeah, he got it. Probably because Dipper whispered a very strong swear under his breath. "We're not in England, are we?"

"United States of America." Okay, the look of offense was a little much. "That still doesn't explain why you don't know what  _these_ chips are. Aren't they just called a different name where you're from? Crisps, or something?"

"I meant the bag, mostly." Will rustled it for emphasis, looking a bit freaked out at the resulting noise. Why would he be freaked out by that? "What even  _is_ this?"

"I…" Trailing off, Dipper slowly looked to the book and then back to Will. Will noticed his look, offering a small shrug and a smaller smile.

"On the bright side your summoning thing  _sort_ of worked. I mean, you didn't get a pen, but you definitely summoned something. Alright, let's figure this out. I hope you have enough to pay for a boat for me to get back!"

The clothes, the boat, the way he was freaked out about the bag, the odd way he was looking at  _Dipper_  and oh… Oh, he couldn't have messed up that badly, could he?

"It's 2018." There was a moment in where Will stared at him oddly, Dipper hoping he was about to call him an idiot for stating the obvious. "The year? It's- The year is 2018." Dipper pulled out his phone, clicking it on and flashing the screen to show the time, date, and weather. "This is a phone- Telephone." They had telephones where he was from, right- Fuck, from  _when_ he was from.

Will slowly sank back down from where he had been starting to stand. Instead of calling Dipper an idiot, he only blinked slowly and everything about him seemed to  _droop_. Sandy brown hair and wide green eyes held up by bags made him look even younger with the shock on his face.

"2018," he repeated, staring at the phone and slowly, so slowly, looking back to Dipper. "1927."

"Oh." Dipper had just dragged someone 91 years in the future while trying to summon a pen. "My sister is never going to let me live this down."

::

"Okay, so I'm  _pretty sure_ I can fix this as long as we're careful." After a quick run downstairs and grabbing every magic book he could get his hands on, Dipper was back upstairs with Will. He had also been running up food and giving the other as much as possible to try and distract him from what had happened and also because he was stick thin.

"I don't know if I like the odds of 'pretty sure.'" Will had decimated near everything Dipper had brought and was now munching on another bag of chips. They would definitely have to go shopping soon. "I mean, if you summon me while trying to summon a pen, sending me back might put me in hell, or something. I mean, I was already there, but my point stands."

Dipper paused, giving Will an odd look and  _really_ taking a moment to study him. He was worryingly thin, yeah, but he also said something about people chasing him and what Dipper  _thought_ was a joke about wanting to kill him. His clothes also looked to be worn and ragged and barely holding together. Right, clothes before he went back, definitely. "What's with the look, star boy."

"I wasn't staring!" Dipper closed his eyes and took a breath, and, right. Puberty did not help him with that quirk of his. It had also never helped with the whole talking out loud, thing, but at least that one he could pass off as mad genius from time to time. "I mean, I, uh." Wait. "Star boy?"

"The Little Dipper is a bunch of stars, innit?" Will crunched up the now empty bag, tossing it towards a pile of trash and grabbing a snack cake. The more time Dipper talked with him the easier it was to pick out an accent. "Seemed better than calling you  _Dipper_. Did your parents hate you?"

"It's- No- Dipper isn't my  _real_ name. It's just a nickname I got when I was a kid." Seeing the look, Dipper sighed. At least maybe this would get the other to not call him star boy. "Mason. My name is Mason."

"Huh. Mason. That sounds more normal. Okay, Mason, what have you got?" Gah, that was going to take some getting used to, for sure.

"My uncle's books will probably have a time travel spell to get you back. I mean, it can't be so hard, right? I only messed up one word from the original spell."

"I'm gonna be stuck here for a while, aren't I?"

"Dipper! Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan are back!" At Mabel's shout, Dipper grabbed the most promising book, Will's hand, and kicked the window open.

"Nope, no way are we gonna be stuck here." Because if they found out what happened then Dipper  _would never live this down_. "We're leaving. Now. This second."

"Out the window? Neat!" This kid was weird, no doubt about it, but he didn't argue as Dipper pushed him out the window and onto the roof, passing him the book.

"I'll meet you outside. There's a ladder over there you can use to climb down. Um, don't fall and don't die, okay? That'll probably mess up time or something."

"On it, star boy." Nope, no, didn't stop the terrible name. Irritated, Dipper shut and locked the window before glancing at the mess and, right, he'd fix that later. He at least pushed a few of the wrappers into a pile and made sure the books were all closed before he left - he had learned the first time not to leave magic books open.

Running down the stairs, Dipper stopped by his room to grab his backpack with his revised monster hunting kit, pausing to dig through his clothes and find an old shirt and pair of pants he never wore. Throwing the bag on, Dipper ran for the back door, passing by everyone in the kitchen. "Hi, bye, love you, going to the-" Wait. Backing up, Dipper stared at the Gremlobin passed out in the middle of the floor. "Is that- How did- Why-"

"Eh, it's a Tuesday," Stan shrugged, as if that explained why there was a creature that caused you to experience your worst nightmares was on the kitchen floor. Dipper was upset that it kind of did, in a weird way. Pft. Weird. Right. He almost forgot where he lived. "Library?"

"Yeah, need a book, don't go in the attic." Stan sighed and hung his head, Ford gave him a very judging look, and Mabel snorted. Dipper just cleared his throat. "Just… Don't. Bye."

Running outside, Dipper quickly went around to the side, near screaming as Will fell down  _right in front of him_. "Oh my god, are you okay?!" Please don't be dead Dipper didn't know any good resurrection spells!

It took a moment, but Will blinked before bursting into giggles and right. Great. He brought back the one kid who was crazier than he was. Who  _laughed_ after falling  _five feet to the ground_? "Sorry, sorry, pain is hilarious- Only if it doesn't hurt too bad, though, which this doesn't. Trust me, this is nothing!"

"Ri… Right." Shaking off the memories  _that_ phrase caused, Dipper cleared his throat and helped Will to his feet. Here he thought he was finally over all that, too. "Sorry about shoving you out the window, but I don't think it'd be good if anyone saw you right now."

"I figured," Will laughed again, pausing at the clothes Dipper handed him, because, really, now his clothes were just about ruined. "What are these for? Mine are perfectly fine-"

"It's so you blend in better," Dipper quickly lied, patting himself on the back for how well a lie it was. He almost believed it himself! "Just get changed."

"Pushy, pushy." Will started tugging his shirt off, staring at Dipper as he paused. "I mean, if you don't want to look away-" Turning on his heel, Dipper roughly cleared his throat and walked a few feet away, blushing even more at the laughter he heard. Damn brat.

"Just hurry up, okay? I figure the library will have what we need if this book doesn't, and the soon we can you back to your time then the sooner I can stop worrying about Time Agents showing up to yell at me."

"Time Agents? What are those?" Ugh, where did he even  _start_ with that question? "Are they like- Hey! Neat! You got clothes that are my favorite colors!" Glancing back, Dipper saw the other was  _delighted_ with the black dress pants and yellow shirt he had grabbed.

"Yellow and black are your favorite colors?" Weird kid, but to each their own, Dipper supposed. Maybe he just really liked bees.

"No,  _gold_ is my favorite color. It only looks good with black, though!" Weird kid. "Don't look at me like that. It's not as if your hat is any better. Instead of star boy should I start calling you Pine Tree-"

" _No_!" It was never quiet in Gravity Falls, but for a moment it felt like the entire world had fallen silent after Dipper's outburst. "Sorry- I'm sorry, just… No. That name has some bad memories for me."

"Yeah… I get that." Will straightened the shirt, hesitantly patting at Dipper's shoulder once. "Sorry. I'm told I can get pretty annoying. It's a talent of mine."

"Don't worry, it's a talent we share." The bright grin startled a laugh out of him, Dipper sighing and adjusting the grip on the book in his arms. "It's something I was called when I was a kid and hearing it now reminds me of the one who called me that. He… He wasn't that great of a guy."

"Ex? It's okay, it- Ow! There's no need to hit me with a book that big!" God… Bill Cipher as an- Ugh, he didn't even want to think about it. "Okay, okay, no calling you  _that_. I got it. We're going to the library, then?"

"Yeah, like I said, if this book doesn't work then we can find something else." Maybe they could get the kid some new shoes while they were in town… Mm, one step at a time.

"Alright. Lead the way, Mason!" Yep, yeah, that was still weird. That was still  _really_ weird. Which was saying something, considering-

"You let him call you Mason?" Oh, god, no, it just got so much worse. "You never even let  _Linda_ call you that and you two were  _dating_ \- You don't even let  _Mom_  call you that."

"I don't want to hear this from the girl that had one of her boyfriends call her Jasmine because you thought the name sounded better than your own." Smirking at the other's red cheeks, Dipper crossed his arms victoriously. "Or the time you let that guy call you by your middle name-"

"Ah, okay, stop, mercy." Yeah, that's what he thought. Ha, who said Mabel always won their fights? "Why is there some random kid I've never seen before calling you Mason?" Blegh, horrible name.

"He's a friend from the library."

"He summoned me from the 1920s."

"I lied, we're in a drama group together and we're practicing for a play."

"I play the kid he summoned with magic from 1927."

"You really don't get the whole lying thing, do you?" Dipper glared at Will, the kid only smirking and looking to revel in the chaos he was causing. "I hate you."

"Aw, thanks, star boy!" A little snerk sound from Mabel had Dipper grabbing Will's wrist and quickly pulling him along and aha, nope. He was in no way sticking around for  _that_ conversation. No way in hell. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with being a bit of chaos."

"I think you mean ruining my life." He was going to have to put up with so much when he got back, that was for damn sure. At least Mabel would probably keep this a secret until she could use it against him. That was  _something_. "Just… Come on. Let's get to the library and find a way to get you back."

::

The book Dipper had grabbed was useless and so, it seemed, was every other book in the upper part of the library. This being Gravity Falls he  _knew_ there was another section of books -  _real_ magic books - below the building, but they had changed the location of the entrance! Ugh, they had probably used some cipher and riddle to hide it.

This library was more fond of codes and riddles than  _Dipper_ was, and that was saying something considering his first summer here. Now it had been two hours and beyond the riddling poem plaque at the front desk they had found no clues and no good books. They had found out  _nothing_ \- Well. Maybe not quite nothing.

Dipper found out that Will had grown up on the streets of London after his family had died when he was young. He had run away before some form of child services could grab him and had been living on his own since then. Dipper was kind of amazed. He knew he wouldn't do anywhere near as well if he lost his family at such a young age. Heck, he wouldn't do well if he lost his family period.

They had talked about friends, enemies, favorite memories, favorite places to eat, their favorite books, and were now on the subject of hopes and dreams. It had been a pretty normal day so far, really, for Dipper.

"Okay, but there's got to be  _something_ you want to do besides just survive out on the streets." Dipper was sitting on top of a table since the library was empty right then, flipping through a book on secret entrances as Will placed books at random on the desk like he was planning to build a tower out of them. They'd have to clean up before they left.

"I guess not really? I like being on the streets. It's like a new adventure every day." Yeah… That part Dipper could definitely understand, but, still. "Besides, what other life is there? I'm not exactly a kid anymore. They wouldn't put me in a system or anything."

"Yeah, I'm willing to bet the system in your time isn't as good, either," Dipper snorted, shaking his head. "If we find a spell that works it might just push you back in time and  _not_ location, you know."

"Then I'll adapt," Will shrugged, sounding as if that thought didn't bother him in the least. "I'm pretty good at that and I've survived worse."

"You could always stay in this time?" Dipper made it sound like an offhand comment, but he had been thinking on it since they left the house. Will wasn't so bad, and, really… It wasn't like they didn't have the space and Dipper  _was_ out of college now. The perfect time to start looking for his own place and maybe having a roommate could be helpful? "I mean… You really have no one?"

"No one at all," Will beamed, as if that was something to be  _proud_ over. "It's fine, star boy. I can take care of myself." That… That wasn't a  _no_.

"I never said you couldn't." No one left. That meant no one would miss him or notice he was gone if he didn't go back. He could really stay and it would be okay. "Hey, Will? I… Maybe-"

"Aha!" Jumping at the shout, Dipper near fell off the table as he followed after Will who had just  _run off_. Turning a corner, his eyes widened as Bill grinned and waited beside an open door- an open door that had been hidden behind a bookcase of theology and led down towards what looked like a cellar.

"You… How?" Because Dipper had checked that area when they got there and there had been  _nothing_. He had damn near broken it trying to push it or find a switch. "You found the entrance."

"You thought I was lying all those books out for fun?" Will grinned, pointing towards a plaque nailed to one of the desks. It was the little welcoming riddle that Dipper couldn't make heads or tails of. "First word of each line is the first word in each book and you can find the book by matching it up to the dewey decimal system depending on how many words there are. The periods mark them off, looks like. A little of it was just random guessing, but the books all talked about theology, secret entrances, and Queens, so I figured the first two led to this, but the last one led to pressing the small charm of Queen Elizabeth right here."

He had figured all of that out in the time Dipper had been moping and boredly reading a book? That… "Will, that's incredible."

"If I was stupid then I wouldn't have made it for as long as I did." With that, Will was prancing down the stairs, Dipper staring after him before quickly following and that was just- Now he  _really_ wanted him to stay if only so they could talk about codes and riddles. "Hey, Will, wait up!"

"You should hurry up," Will called back, laughing as he went down even more, Dipper distracted by the shelves of books built into the walls. They looked to have re-done the entire lower chambers. He needed to start investigating immediately- "Come on, Mason!"

"Coming!" Dipper really  _could_ see Will being a great friend.

With all the books available, it didn't take that long to find a spell to send someone through time to a certain year with no side effects beyond some extra static shock the next few days. It would even make it so he went back to the point he had left from! It actually took only half an hour to find, but Dipper might have made it seem longer if only so he could keep talking to Will.

It was stupid, but they had so much in common! Dipper wasn't used to the whole friend thing, but he was pretty sure he and Will were at least getting there. It must have been hours they spent talking about their lives and what they loved and hated before Dipper finally started drawing the ritual circles on the ground.

"Are you really sure you want to go back? I mean, you said you were running from some not so nice guys. They could find you again if this really does send you back to the exact same place - you could end up right in the middle of running."

"Things happen," Will shrugged, helping draw with some broken off chalk they had found half crushed in Dipper's backpack. "Besides, it's home no matter how I feel about the place."

"I mean- Yeah, but… You could always find a new home." A hand on his head pushed his hat down over his eyes, Dipper yelping and scrambling to get his balance as he looked up at a grinning Will.

"It's a nice thought, star boy, but I'd rather not.  _You_ were the one going on and on about consequences, anyways." Oh, yeah. He had, huh? Dammit. He should have kept his mouth shut. "Maybe I can visit?"

"Sounds a bit tricky, but maybe I'll accidentally summon you instead of a pen, again. Much likelier, don't you think?" Scrubbing at the triangles he was  _trying_ to draw, Dipper whined as Will took the chalk and started drawing instead.

"Move over, triangles are something I'm great at. And if you do accidentally summon me, then, well. I guess I couldn't be too angry about that." Will was smiling at him, Dipper returning the smile before he looked down to the triangle and… It had a little bowtie on it and a single eye. "Wow, that's a look- Oh, sorry." Will scrubbed the eye and bowtie away.

"Do you- Uh, do you normally draw your triangles like that?" No… No, that couldn't- All traces of him were  _gone_. Dipper made sure to tear out every page, shatter every window, and erase every trace of him. He was  _gone_.

"They actually have top hats, too," Will admitted, cheeks flushing red. "It's just a stupid little thing I've drawn since I was a kid, but that probably won't help the whole 'magic needs to be precise' thing, huh?"

"Ye- Yeah." Bowties, a top hat, and a single eye. No. "Something you saw in a book and just picked up?"

"Oh, no," Will waved off. "Something I came up with as a kid while just drawing shapes. So, hey, maybe I'll live long enough to come over here and visit you. I'd be in my nineties, I think? I could probably live that long. It'd be pretty hard to forget Gravity Falls, after all!"

_Gravity Falls, it is good to be back!_

_Tsk, tsk, Pine Tree, that's no way to treat a friend!_

_I know things you could only dream of, little Pines._

_Jeez, Pine Tree, you must really not hate knowing everything!_

_Oh, I can't wait until you figure it all out._

_Well, Pine Tree? Clock's ticking!_

"Ye- Yeah- Hey, Will, uh, do you go by any other names?" The world couldn't be that cruel to him, could it? But it all was matching up. The triangles were just the last little jolt, but… Will laughed at his pain, loved black and gold, was mischievous and dangerous and loved chaos, and the way he had solved that riddle…

"Oh, jeez, that- Sort of. It's embarrassing." No. No, he had to be wrong. There was no way something like that was even possible- Will was human. A human from years in the past. "It's this name I came up with so no one can connect me to some past, um, well, let's just call them adventures. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. Come on, let's get you back home, yeah?" No. The odds were a billion to one. There was no way to even fathom the chances of something like that happening. "Just stand in the middle, okay?" Don't ask. If he didn't ask then it would never be true.

"You got it, star boy." Will picked his way over to stand in the middle, Dipper standing with the book in his hands and the spell easily readable. "No more summoning people from England, okay?"

"I'll do my best," Dipper laughed, the image of gold and heat fading from the sweet smile Will was giving him. "You be careful, okay? I want to see you again in 91 years or so."

"I'll do my best." Clearing his throat, Dipper opened his mouth before Will spoke again. "Oh, I never told you that name."

"No- No, that's okay, you don't have too. You said it was embarrassing, right?" Please… Please, don't-

"Only a little." Will laughed wild and bright, grin blinding. "It's Bill. Bill Cipher."

::

"Was this all some last great trick of yours? Taunt me about it all and then after I forget you give me hope of having just a single friend and then  _that_?" Will - no,  _Bill_ had been sent back to his proper time, Dipper struggling so hard to keep a smile on throughout the entire mess until the other was gone. God, he had been so close to finding another spell that would do  _worse_  and he was the fucking  _worst_  and- "Just some plan to torture me some more?!"

It was supposed to be over. He was supposed to be  _done_ , and yet here he was screaming at a stone statute because Bill fucking Cipher couldn't stay out of his  _fucking_ life. "I'm not supposed to worry about you anymore after the harm you put my family through and now this and-  _Why me_?!"

It wasn't fair. It wasn't  _fair_. How had a human become the demon that was Bill Cipher? How much had Bill Cipher lied about? He said he was thousands of years old and from another dimension and all powerful and such a fucking  _liar_. He wasn't even a hundred and he had been human so  _what happened_.

What changed in ninety years to make him want to destroy humanity? What made him turn into a  _demon_. "You're not supposed to be in my life." There had been a point where Dipper had studied the statute that Bill had left behind every day because there was so much to  _learn_ still. Then he remembered the last member of his family who had been too curious and he had gotten rid of everything.

Yet here he was standing in front of the statue of Bill Cipher with the name Will in his head and the memory of someone who laughed at his jokes and loved the same things he did. "You can't leave me alone, can you?" Except… It was sort of the other way around. "I'm never going to escape you."

Dipper Pines loved mysteries. It was a fact of life. He had learned all the mysteries of Gravity Falls, though, and this place was more his home than those who had been born here. There was only one mystery left and that was the statue that sunk down into soft earth and had been covered with moss and leaves and vines.

Not even sunlight touched the stone as it was. The forest was quiet in this area and the trees and earth did their best to swallow him up, but he was still here. Hand outstretched from the shadows to whoever was fool enough to touch him.

"I'm never going to stop wondering, am I?" Bill Cipher had been human. There were so many questions Dipper wanted to ask and the only one who could answer him was sleeping in stone. He could hear that laugh even now. "Your last great trick." Would Bill even have remembered the kid named Mason that had pulled him through time?

Dipper sighed, sinking to the ground and propping his chin up on a closed fist as he listened to the silence of the forest, grass sun warmed around him and earth soft from the rains. "I'll never find out what happened to you." The last mystery of Gravity Falls.

The stone was warm beneath his touch.


	3. Wednesday Drabble - Home

Title: Wednesday Drabble - Home

Alternate Universe: Twins ~20, friends of Bill Cipher (compilable with canon)

Pairing: Established BillDip

Rating: M+

Warnings: Explicit sex scene between two males with themes of BDSM, eldritch sex, knotting, and so on. Please don't read this if you're under eighteen. If you do, lie to me.

Inspired By: Challenge issued by girlfriend: Write the kinkiest, filthiest, dirtiest smut you've ever written in your life. / Wednesday Drabble

Comments:  _Challenge fucking accepted_.

Summary: Dipper Pines at twenty years old is home in Gravity Falls for the summer and couldn't be more pleased to be back - especially when he finds someone waiting in the woods for him.

::

"Aw, come on, Dip Dop, we just got here and you're already heading off into the woods? That's not fair! We had  _plans_!"

"Yeah, surprisingly enough, I'm not looking forward to getting used as dress model for you and your friends." At the pout his sister gave him, Dipper just stuck his tongue out.

"Ugh, fine, be that way. You can go stomp around in the woods and get sweaty and gross and I'll be over here with my floral scented bug spray and tea parties."

"Yeah, you have fun with that, Mabes. I'll be back in time for lunch, don't worry." A warm summer wind blew over them, Dipper closing his eyes and near falling against the sensation before he was heading towards the woods. "See ya later!"

"Try not to get lost, bro bro! You know how much the woods want to keep you!" Huffing a laugh, Dipper gave a wave of acknowledgment and honestly. They were  _twenty_. They were in college, now! They weren't the same little twelve-year-olds that had run around getting into danger. Well… They at least weren't twelve.

Getting into the woods, Dipper didn't pause until the sounds of the Mystery Shack were far behind him and he couldn't hear even an echo of human life. Mabel had been right, in a way. The woods of Gravity Falls really  _did_ want to keep him. He could feel it in the way he felt energy flow through the earth and wind whistle through the canopy. It was in every crunch of the leaves underfoot and every beastial call that made him laugh instead of fear.

"You'll get me one day." His hands pressed against rough bark that had been there for hundreds of years, voice quieting into a whisper. "But not right now. You know how jealous  _he_ gets." The wind picked up and the trees swayed as if to agree, Dipper laughing as he walked deeper into the woods once again.

It felt like he could have walked for an eternity until he stopped in front of a spot in the woods that looked just like any other. It was, really, but what was different about  _this_ spot was… "Good afternoon, Lord Cipher."

" _Such a sweet disciple to travel so far_." Had he? Oh, Dipper supposed he had. He was panting to get his breath back and his clothes were already soaked with sweat. " _Kneel before your god, little disciple_."

Dipper dropped into a kneel at once, shuddering at the pure  _power_ that brushed across the birthmark hidden under his bangs. Power and  _want_. "Has my Lord been lonely?" Not even a second and Dipper was grunting as he was pushed forward to hit the ground on his stomach magic securing his wrists and ankles to the ground and making him unable to move.

" _So loyal and yet so cheeky_." Whimpering at the scalding heat that slipped under his clothes and traced along his skin, Dipper bit the inside of his lip to silence himself. " _Now, now, none of that. Let me hear your praise, my disciple_."

That was all it took to have Dipper panting and moaning as touch was  _lavished_ upon him, cries and keens escaping with every sharp edge dug into him and every hard press against him. It seemed that every time he started to get used to the feeling the other would do something new to send him into a babbling, moaning wreck, wrists straining against the restraints that kept him tied to the ground.

" _It always amuses me how much you like this… How much you enjoy being a toy for others out in the open where anyone could walk by. That you enjoy knowing that your voice can travel for_ _ **miles**_ _from the pleasure I make you feel._ "

Dipper made a choked noise as suddenly he felt  _talons_ tearing through his clothing and leaving what he knew would look like sharp, thin lines of blood down his back. The pain made everything feel much more intense and had Dipper bucking in the hold, eyes squeezed shut as his shirt and vest were all but torn to shreds. He wouldn't be walking home wearing clothes anytime soon, it seemed.

" _Should I give you more to scream about, little disciple?_ " The talons dug into the blade of his shoulders before it warped into a sensation that felt like sandpaper being dragged down his back, Dipper's moan more of a choked off cry as he felt more weight pressed against him. " _You'd take whatever I'd give you, wouldn't you? Not only that, but you'd praise me every second that passed_."

"Ye- Yes, Lord Ci-  _ah_ \- Cipher!" The sensation changed and this time it felt like chilled scales traveling over his back and rubbing over each and every bump, bruise, and ridge. A sensation that was travelling lower, and lower, and  _lower_ \- Dipper shoved his face against his arm as best he could, the scales slipping past the waistband of his pants and briefs and rubbing against every inch of skin that could be reached.

" _Do you like that, little Pines? Do you enjoy having your face shoved into the dirt as you're forced to do nothing but lie there and take whatever is given to you?_ " Garbled words slipped out of his mouth, Dipper unsure what he had even said since he was now shivering at the breeze that greeted his bare legs and backside. " _Such a twisted little thing_."

Dipper felt the scream that tore it's way out of his throat as his body was pressed hard to the ground, dick rubbing up against the dirt and grass he was lying on top of. It felt- Jesus, it felt  _good_.

Laughter echoed and rumbled around and through him, Dipper shuddering with a gasp as the pressure gave and what felt like human fingers wrapped around him and gave a few smooth strokes. " _Such a good disciple but always so_ _ **eager**_." The fingers on his cock squeezed tightly, a sharp jerk making him whine before the pressure grew tighter, and tighter, and oh. Oh, god. " _It wouldn't do to have this end too soon._ "

This time when the talons came back they dug into the skin on his thighs, Dipper screaming at the sharp points of pain and trying to squirm away from it. " _Such a naughty follower… You've been keeping me out of your dreams, Pine Tree_." Oh, aha, right. Because- The talons let go abruptly and Dipper whimpered at the tongue that licked at the open wounds, Dipper knowing by the end of this that there would be no trace they were ever there.

"Di- A-Ah, was-  _Fuck_." The tongue climbed high and licked right against his balls, Dipper shaking at the wet breath that surrounded him down there and whimpering at the hint of sharp fangs he felt nick against the skin. Whatever words he had in his head were now utterly gone, Dipper panting as the tongue traced up higher, and higher, and  _oh_.

Wet saliva dripped into his crack before hands were pushing his cheeks apart, Dipper swallowing a noise at the burn before that tongue was skillfully licking into him and going so  _deep_ and pressing right  _there_. Dipper couldn't move even half an inch in his position and the relentless pressure and pleasure had him damn near losing his mind, especially since he was unable to-

" _So_ _ **receptive**_ _. Did you dream about this, Pine Tree? Did you dream about me turning you on your stomach and eating you out until there was nothing inside of you but what came from me?_ " Fuuuck.

"Ye- Yes, Lord Ci- Cipher. I always dream of you-" The last word turned into a squeak, Dipper jerking as something long and smooth and slimy and  _definitely_ not a tongue started to crawl inside of him.

" _You dream of the things I do to you. Well, I would hate to disappoint my most loyal disciple._ " The- The  _thing_ inside of him started a fast, rough pace, pumping into him and leaving behind slick fluids with every thrust that produced noises that had Dipper blushing to the tips of his ears. It was hard to stay embarrassed, however, when he was getting more and more frustrated because he was  _right there_. He was right there on that damn edge and that fucking ring  _wouldn't let him come_.

Dipper wasn't sure how long that damn whatever kept fucking into him, but eventually and suddenly there was no feeling at all and somehow having all feeling missing was even  _worse_. He hadn't even been aware that tears were building up until soft lips brushed against one that escaped.

" _Ssh, my sweet star… I'll take care of you_." Claws dug into his shoulders and Dipper  _screamed_ as a cock, thick and large and  _hard_ , slammed into him as far it could go. " _You've gone_ _ **so long**_ _without, after all_." The cock inside him pulled out until nothing but the tip was in before slamming back into him, repeating again and again and again  _and again_ \- Dipper felt like he was coming apart in pieces before it seemed to get bigger- Oh.

Dipper barely had time to realize what was going on before a thick and swollen knot was pushed all the way into him and catching deep, Dipper shuddering and burying his face against the ground as he felt hot liquid begin to fill him. There was something- Fuck, there was something so fucking  _right_ about being fucked and knotted from behind as he could only smell sun warmed grass and dirt packed earth.

It wasn't just that, but the fact each thrust had made his cock shift between his sweat soaked skin and the grass and that alone would have made him come if he wasn't being fucking  _punished_ -

" _Hush, little one. You're not being punished._ " There was a soft nuzzle to the back of his neck, lips brushing against the skin sweetly. " _I missed you_." That was all the warning Dipper got before teeth were biting down sharply over old marks that had long ago healed, Dipper squirming against the feeling and making a desperate noise as it only pushed him back more into the cock that was still just barely moving inside him.

A flash and he was left empty again, Dipper cracking an eye open as the restraints were vanished and he was rolled over onto his back. This time it was a human body that was sitting over him, molten gold eyes obscured by blown pupils and wispy blond hair matted to his head from a layer of sweat.

"You were gone for too long." Bill Cipher nuzzled at his neck where the marks were still bleeding, Dipper shuddering as his sore and abused hole was filled with fingers that pumped him slowly and surely, swirling around the cum that was still leaking out of him. "You were gone for far,  _far_ too long."

"'S only a few more years." Nails pressed against the inside of him for a brief moment, Dipper's breath hiccuping into a whine. " _Bill_."

"You should take a gap year." Bill kissed at the corner of his eye again, removing his fingers with a wet sound that made Dipper blush. "Maybe two-"

"I am not taking a gap year!" Once again a cock, this one far more familiar, thrust into him hard and fast, Dipper reaching up to wrap his arms around Bill's shoulders and bite at his neck in retaliation. "Could've gone longer."

"Not when you just got home and look ready to break from just that," Bill  _snorted_ , pushing Dipper's hair back and out of his face as he moved him to lay on the ground again. "Relax, Dipper, we can play again later."

"God, don't say it like that." Dipper covered his face and his mouth as a sure hand wrapped around him, pumping his cock slowly as the hard and fast pace eased to something softer. "It's not embarrassing until you say shit like  _that_."

"That's what makes you embarrassed?" The laughter was high and bright, Bill leaning in close to swipe his tongue over the marks again, thrusting in time perfectly with the hand on his cock that was  _gushing_ with precum. "Not being fucked by a tentacle or a wolf dick or anything else, but hearing me say that it was play-"

"Shut up and  _fuck me_ already-" The last word was punched out of him by a hard thrust that was followed by dozens more, Dipper left a panting, moaning mess before he felt a tingle of magic and the ring was gone and-

Instead of like the usual wave of pleasure Dipper felt it crashed into him to where he couldn't even breath, a short, sharp blast of pleasure that made every part of him tense up and cry out, every thought fizzling out beyond how  _good_ it all felt.

He wasn't sure how long it took for awareness to come back, but when it did he saw he was properly dressed in new clothes - gold and black of fucking course - and was curled up in Bill's human arms, the disguised demon humming a soft song as he played with Dipper's hair. "Right- Right, okay." Making a face, Dipper made a note to try and scream  _less_ because  _damn_ did his throat hurt. "Okay, next time let's save the kinky sex for  _after_ the reunion sex instead of combining them."

"You're just upset you didn't get to enjoy it like you wanted." Yeah, well… Maybe. "I really am happy you're home, Pine Tree." Bill sweetly nuzzled at his cheek, Dipper sighing.

"Yeah… Yeah, it's good to be home." The 'with you' went unsaid, but Dipper was sure Bill would catch it. He was good at solving mysteries, after all.


	4. Wednesday Drabble - Bloods Sings the Loudest

[Follow me on tumblr at ibelieveinahappilyeverafter](http://ibelieveinahappilyeverafter.tumblr.com/tagged/otpafs)

Title: Wednesday Drabble - Blood Sings The Loudest

Alternate Universe: Dipper Age 23 / Town Guardian Bill Cipher

Pairing: Established BillDip

Rating: T+

Warnings: Mentions of blood, violence, and alludes to minor character death (cultists)

Summary: Dipper Pines is used to dealing with the strange, but he honestly hadn't expected a  _cult_ to be behind the recent kidnappings in Gravity Falls. While the cult seems like a joke at first, Dipper quickly realizes how dangerous they are. He doesn't know who their 'god' is, but he's going to make sure not one drop of blood from Gravity Falls is spilled.

::

"You know that most cults aren't even worshipping actual  _demons_? You guys are usually just worshiping stories parents told their kids to get them to behave better." Instead of the cold silence he had been getting, one of the cultists threw something rather heavy at the cage Dipper had been stuck in the past who knew how long.

"The dead should know when to be quiet." Oh, how original. They probably thought that sounded scary, too. Mm, Dipper should probably at least pretend to be scared until the others got there as backup considering he had went on ahead alone, but, well.

"Yeah, I'm not very good at the whole 'staying dead' part of all this. I probably need to work on that, huh?" The glares were too good. They honestly thought they were some terrifying cult of the damned, but it was almost hilarious how inept they all were. Dipper was pretty sure his cage was a  _dog_ cage that could be bought for fifty dollars at a pet store. "So, what legend are you guys trying to summon today, then?"

"Be  _silent_." With that, Dipper was firmly ignored as a few of the cultists began drawing chalk circles and symbols on the ground. Considering Dipper had been roughed up before he was thrown in the cage, he was starting to get bored and cranky. It had at least been an hour judging by the way his legs were starting to go numb.

It had been an interesting enough mystery at first, he supposed. They had heard about people going missing and, after making sure the gnomes didn't have anything to do with it, had gone searching for what was doing it. Dipper had been surprised to find that it was a cult of humans rather than one of Gravity Falls' resident monsters.

Even then, most of the monsters would kidnap humans for something like a party, not whatever  _these_ idiots were doing. Dipper had overheard enough to know that they were trying to summon some ancient god or demon or something, but that was about all. He knew that it wasn't any of the demons he knew and that was enough to reassure him.

"Yeah, hey, shouldn't I be getting some water or something? You know starving your prisoners is considered torture and can get you more years in jail, right?"

"Continue your blasphemous talk and you will be sacrificed to summon the harbinger of the red dawn."

"Oh, god, you guys are serious." The harbinger of the  _what_? Oh, god, it took everything Dipper had to not burst out laughing. Jeez, these guys probably thought a cult could  _only_ talk like this. "How exactly will I be sacrificed?"

"Your throat slashed and your blood free to run upon the symbols of the All Powerful seems suitable enough." The one who had spoken hadn't bothered to wear a hood and Dipper could see why. The friendly and ordinary face was twisted with a sneer of blood and hatred. He was sure that as long as this man never smiled like that outside no one would know who he was. "Perhaps we should ruin that voice of yours, first. Many do not like having such a  _vocal_ sacrifice."

Dipper stayed silent, looking away and trying to get his heart rate under control. Monsters were one thing, but people like that… Dipper was confident when it came to banishing ghosts, summoning the dead, and a host of other things, but when it came to dealing with people like  _that_? He'd much rather the cops handle that one.

Right, right, focus. At least six people had gone missing. The cult had to have them somewhere, but Dipper hadn't seen anyone caged besides himself. These people definitely were from outside of Gravity Falls, though. That begged the question of why they were  _here_.

"So, uh, does this red dawn have anything to do with Gravity Falls?" It could be a coincidence, of course, but things like this rarely were. He had learned the hard way that coincidence was really the answer.

"You, child, wouldn't understand." Oh, weird. Female voice, definitely. Huh. He hadn't met a female cultist since the Blind Eye. "Gravity Falls is a fitting site for the rise of our Master. That is all you need know."

"Pretty sure your way of talking died out in the 1900s," Dipper sighed, raising an eyebrow as one of them took a step towards him threateningly. "I'm curious, though. Is this all because Gravity Falls is a Way Point?"

"Oh?" The woman lowered her hood, red hair spilling down her shoulders in soft waves as intense, blue eyes look into his own. She would have been beautiful if her grin wasn't so nasty. "What a clever little boy. You know of Way Points?"

"I  _did_ go to college." Grunkle Ford hadn't been wrong in his Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness, but he hadn't been  _right_ , either. There were more towns out there besides Gravity Fall that attracted the weird and the supernatural. "What kind of creature needs a Way Point?"

"Something much more powerful than you and your demon could ever hope to reach." Wha-  _His_ demon? "We never thought another cult would be here, yet here we find our plans interrupted by a little cultist for the weak Bill Cipher."

"Oh my god. You think I'm a follower of  _Bill's_?" That- Holy shit, Mabel was going to laugh up a lung when she heard about this one.

"Don't worry, little boy. There's no need to lie of your allegiance to Cipher. We have eyes of our own in this town." Ah- Aah, that- Oh, man, they so needed to be more careful about where they had their little- Aha, their 'games.' Jesus, Dipper was going to kill Bill when this was over. "Such a devoted disciple."

"Okay! Let's get back to the whole summoning thing! Why are you kidnapping people out of my town? Is it because they were nearby or because they grew up on a Way Point?"

"You're right on both counts just as much as you are wrong." Yeah, because  _that_ made sense. "Magic sings the loudest. It's actually quite the gift to have you fall into our web."

"Creepy. Right. You're the creepy one. Got it." Running through his head the list of the people gone missing, Dipper swore to himself when he realized that they all  _did_ have magic - even if they didn't realize it, yet. "So, what, you're going to drain their magic?"

"One by one until our Master has enough to break through." This time it was the guy with the creepy smile that spoke, his laugh loud and echoing harshly off the dungeon walls. "Be grateful, Dipper Pines. You have enough magic in you that you saved half a dozen more people!"

"Joy." Fuck. This was much worse than any of them had thought. Dipper was only twenty three, but he knew that he had enough magic in him to rival even properly trained magic users. He probably had the most magic in him out of everyone in town - everyone human, at least.

Okay, they probably had at least a few hours until they began- "Bring out the first." Or they were out of time and Dipper had to think of something quick to stall until the others got their asses over here.

"So am I going first, then?" One of them sneered, Dipper watching as a girl who couldn't be older than ten or twelve was led out with ropes around her wrists and another around her neck. She was fighting even through her fear and her hair was a shade of red that let him know right away this was Wendy's missing cousin.

"We figured we would save the best for last." The girl, Sherry, looked terrified as the woman from before grabbed her chin and looked her over, "Not the strongest magic, but you'll do, I suppose."

"Hey- Hey! She's just a kid! Something like this could kill her!" Dipper threw himself at the bars of his cage, not very surprised when one of them pushed a fucking  _taser_ through the bars to get him to stop. It took a few moments of gagging and trying to get his breath back before he could speak again. "You could  _kill her_!"

"And?" These cultists had just gone from a joke to a terrifying enemy. Looking around the room for something - anything - Dipper's eyes caught on Sherry. She was crying silently.  _Silently_. She knew help wasn't coming. "If you have your hopes placed on Bill Cipher, abandon them."

"You think we weren't aware of you and that family of yours tracking us? There's a reason they haven't found you yet, boy." Wha… Oh, no. "We have our own magic." Barriers. They had put up barriers and now neither his family  _or_ Bill could get in on their own.

Dipper looked to Sherry, the girl trembling as another cultist approached with a knife. Sherry held his gaze for a lifetime before looking away, hopelessness in her eyes. When Dipper breathed in, he felt his power swirl around him, "You came to the wrong Way Point."

Towns like theirs attracted the weird and the wild and strange, but each and every one of them had a guardian. Dipper had spent two years traveling the country and learning and he had met dozens of them. A ghost living as a human in Illinois, an eldritch nightmare in the desert, a dragon and a girl filled to the brim with magic in different parts of New York, and a few genius kids scattered about who had seen the truth before anyone else.

Gravity Falls, however, had the Pines family. Watching as three cultists began to move towards him, Dipper quickly pulled out the knife that had survived their pat down, grinning fiercely and brightly at their looks.

"You were right, you know, when you called me his disciple." Bill Cipher had been the greatest threat of Gravity Falls and now he was their fiercest protector. There was a reason for that. "I defeated him and I brought him back." The stone statute had sat there for years before Dipper shook his hand because Way Points attracted the weird, but they also attracted danger, and the Pines hadn't been strong enough. "You said magic sings the loudest, right?"

Dipper clutched the knife in his palm and jerked it quickly, biting his lip at the bite of pain. He could already hear his sister screaming at him for slicing his  _palm_ of all places, but blood came from power and power from blood and for him that meant his palm where the magic gathered and- "Blood sings louder."

"Stop him- Stop him!" Dipper jerked his hat off and smeared blood over the summoning circle that had been stitched under the brim. One second… Two… Three…

The cage door swung open and the shadows of the room crawled up the walls. Even through the pain, Dipper laughed at the looks of fear on all of their faces. He laughed more when shadows swirled and gathered in his palm, stitching the wound back together and returning some of the energy he had given. "A dream demon can do more than just see your dreams. He's a demon of dreams and of the mind. He  _rules_ the shadows. And guess where we are?"

They were deep underground where shadows lay everywhere, and Dipper was pleased to see the shadows turn into physical entities that wrapped around the cultists like whips, dragging him down and suffocating them into barely being able to breathe. The one that had raised a knife to Sherry had been sucked deep,  _deep_ into the shadows. He had little doubt the man was already dead.

"Leave one of them alive so we can find the others." Dipper crawled out of his cage on unsteady feet, brushing himself off as he put his hat back on. He smirked at the woman that had gone pale. "What's the matter? I thought you said he was weak." A scream cut off whatever she had been ready to say, Dipper shaking his head with a wild grin as a tendril wrapped around her throat and  _squeezed_. "What's the matter? Don't you know?  _Pain is hilarious_."

The entire room rippled in sadistic pleasure and Dipper stood by calmly as the woman was jerked back so quickly she slammed into the wall. He gave her little thought before walking through the screaming and no doubt dying cultists, Dipper knew the only reason there was no blood was because of the shaking child in the middle of a summoning circle. "Hey- Sherry, right? Wendy's cousin? You might not know me really well, but-"

The girl launched herself into his arms, Dipper getting over his shock enough to catch her. The poor thing was shaking and was wearing a ragged and torn dress that looked to have been through hell and back. Shaking his head, he quickly worked off the ropes from around her neck and wrists, eyes narrowing at the marks left behind. "Sherry, which one put that rope around your neck?"

Shaking, the girl looked up and around the room and the chaos, Dipper worried she might scream until she pointed at one of the cultists, voice quiet, "He did it." The shadows swallowed him without hesitation.

"He won't hurt anyone again." Scooping her up with a bit of trouble, Dipper held her close as he walked towards the exit. "Let's get you home, okay?"

"Okay." Sherry's voice was soft and quiet, the girl sounding exhausted as she leaned her head against Dipper's chest. "Are you really a cultist like them?"

"No. Sort of- It's complicated. Do I seem like them?" The girl shook her head quickly, Dipper hiding a smile as some of the shadows snapped out to open the door before Dipper had to. Show off. "Don't worry. We're the good guys."

A section of shadow broke off and waved in front of Sherry, the girl looking at Dipper before giving it a small shake with her hand. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Cipher." Heh. Smart girl.

The tendril turned into a hand that was connected to a grinning dream demon, human disguise on, although he was dressed in that stupidly gorgeous suit of gold and black. Bill pecked the back of Sherry's hand, giving her a grin. "It's nice to meet you as well, little Corduroy."

Sherry stared and Dipper was certain she was going to scream before she looked up at him and, "I wanna be a cultist." Bill's laughter drowned out the screams behind them, Dipper sighing as he tried not to laugh himself.

"We'll see." He had a feeling Sherry and the other kidnapped victims were going to be just fine. The last thing they needed, though, was a cult for Bill Cipher. His ego was large enough as it was. "Let's go home."

Dipper spared the hallway behind them one last glance and knew his smile was sharp and wicked, but, really. He couldn't be blamed for that or for what had happened down here. Really… They should have known better than to mess with his home.


	5. Wednesday Drabble - Dreaming Of A Forgotten Yesterday

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Title: Wednesday Drabble - Dreaming Of A Forgotten Yesterday

Alternate Universe: Town Guardian Bill Cipher / Dipper Age 17

Pairing: BillDip (Can be read as established or pre-relationship)

Rating: T+

Warnings: Vague mentions to child abuse, drinking, minor character death, and blood and gore

Inspired By:  _There was nothing so tempting as a locked door._  / ninjapixels deviantart comart/Writing-Prompts-363328930

Summary: Dipper is excited to finally be able to learn some magic in the safety of the dreamscape, but his supposed magical demon teacher is nowhere to be found. Bored, Dipper decides to wander around opening doors into dreams until he comes across a locked door, and, well. Locked doors can be pretty tempting.

::

Dipper crossed his arms, tapped his foot exactly seven times, sighed very audibly, and then looked over both shoulders. There was no hint, spect, or sight of gold in sight. The only colors that surrounded his world was white and black and the washed out tones of the doors that spread out for an eternity.

"You're supposed to be teaching me magic, you know!" Raising his voice did nothing. If Bill Cipher wasn't there, then that meant he didn't know Dipper was asleep, yet. Honestly, that demon was the  _worst_ with times. "I finally go to sleep early for once and you're not even here for me to complain to. Typical."

After the whole 'misunderstanding,' to use Bill's words, the demon had been attached to both pairs of twins and especially to Dipper over the years. Each summer the twins visited was each summer Bill was there waiting to drag them off onto stupid, dangerous adventures that near killed them each and every time. It was amazing.

Now, at seventeen, Dipper had  _finally_ gotten both Grunkles and Bill to agree to let him learn magic and, per Bill's instructions, only practiced inside the dreamscape. Apparently he had too much magic power to just go throwing it about in the human world, according to Bill, and so here Dipper was learning how to use it in the dreamscape - mindscape? Bill made it pretty unclear as to which was which-

"Bill! Are we in the mindscape or dreamscape!" Nothing. Nada. Zip. Not a  _single_ syllable. "If you don't show up in the next three seconds then I'm going to go around and start opening doors!" One. Two. "Say something if you want me to not do that!" Aaand… "Thanks for the permission!" Bill, as 'ruler of dreams and minds' should be able to hear him no matter what, so obviously that was permission.

Okay, so maybe Dipper just really wanted to explore all the dreams, but could he be  _blamed_? He saw what his own dreams were like, so he could only imagine what  _other_ people's dreams looked like. Well. He didn't have to imagine anymore, did he?

Alright. The way Bill had explained it to him the origin of where someone appeared in the dreamscape was where they were in the physical world. That meant the doors around him were the doors of the people that lived in Gravity Falls. Each door was a way into someone's mind and could only be entered when they were sleeping - if they weren't, the door was holographic almost and couldn't be touched.

There were a lot of doors and quite a few were see through. Dipper wasn't too surprised by that one. He  _had_ gone to bed early. Right. Okay. So, just… Pick a door. That sounded simple enough. Picking one at random that was nearby, Dipper turned the knob slowly and poked his head through. He was somehow surprised and yet not at all surprised to see the Mystery Shack.

Most everyone in town had been inside at least once and that place  _was_ the embodiment of nightmares, sometimes. Leaving the door open, Dipper slipped further inside, shivering as he felt a wave of  _something_ wash over him. Hopefully Bill wouldn't yell too much at him for wandering around other people's dreams- Hello, there was Ford.

"Dipper?" Ah, shit. Wait- Aha, dream. That was fine. Just- Just act natural. Normal. Right. Giving a wave, Dipper gave a grin.

"Hey, Grunkle Ford. Any new mysteries, today?" There. That seemed like a generic thing that dream Dipper would say.

"The metal plate keeps Cipher out, but it  _also_ lets me keep enough consciousness to know when  _others_ are in my dreams." Swallowing, Dipper felt a moment of panic and right. Channel his inner NPC.

"Cool. I think I'm gonna go visit Wendy. She should be back-"

"Give it up, kid." Slumping at Ford's thoroughly disbelieving look, Dipper huffed as he was pulled into a one-armed hug. "You're doing better at keeping calm, though, I have to admit."

"Yeah, yeah." Right. Physical location transferred over. He supposed that meant the doors were spread out in correspondence to where people in town were - hence why Ford's door was the first one he saw. "Sorry, by the way. I didn't mean to enter your dream. I just saw a door and got curious."

"Isn't Cipher supposed to be with you right now?" Mm. He was, wasn't he? "No sight of him yet, huh? Probably didn't think you'd be going to bed for another few hours."

"Oh, like you're one to talk- Wait, what  _are_ you doing asleep so early? You- You fell asleep at your desk again, didn't you?" The guilty look was answer enough. "I won't tell if you don't tell I'm snooping through people's dreams."

"You're more like Stan than you realize, kiddo." Ford was grinning, though. "Alright, alright, but knock some sense into that demon if you see him. He shouldn't leave you alone in a place like the dreamscape."

"Don't worry, he usually shows up before I get into too much trouble." Dipper squirmed around to return the loose hug before letting Ford go and heading back towards the still open door. "Your dreams are boring, though."

"There's nothing wrong with an old man dreaming of home." Home, huh… It wasn't Ford's cabin that was around them, though. It was the  _Mystery Shack_. If he strained his hearing, he could almost hear the sounds of Stan doing a tour somewhere else in the building.

"Guess there isn't." Dipper shut the door softly behind him, patting at the wood before moving on. There were a few more solid doors around, so that at least let Dipper know it was getting later. Picking one that was a bit of a further walk away, Dipper poked his head in and saw Lazy Susan in a two-piece bathing suit on the beach. He slowly closed the door before letting himself shudder.

"Right- Right. Guess I'd better be more careful with what doors I open." Shaking his head, Dipper tried a few more, seeing mostly normal scenes of the people of Gravity Falls. He could almost trace out where he was in town depending on which door he opened. He didn't linger for long, though, until he came upon one where it looked like a child in the middle of a nightmare.

Walking in carefully, Dipper eyed the bipedal shadowed monster that was snarling and roaring at a young boy hiding under a bed. Taking a breath, he tried to recall what Bill had told him. Nightmares were just dreams and dreams could be controlled.

"Leave the kid alone." The monster, for it really couldn't be anything else, turned to Dipper and shambled forward a few steps and… There was a beer bottle in the right hand? That was strange. Shaking it off, Dipper stood tall as the monster charged, stopping not even half an inch away from his face. "You aren't real."

He spoke it with conviction and truth, smirking as the beast  _roared_ before beginning to fade. The bottle dropped to the floor, rolling off into a corner. Dipper stared at it for a moment longer before heading over to the bed, "Hey? Hey, kid, you okay?"

It took a long few minutes for a small child to poke his head out. He couldn't be older than five or six and the first thing that stood out was freckles and wide blue eyes. The child looked around the room as if expecting the monster to still be there.

"Hey, it's okay. That thing is gone now. See, I'm a monster fighter, so it's my job to fight off scary things like that and keep kids like you safe!" This wasn't the first scared child he had dealt with, but he was the first to cry  _silently_. Which… Kids weren't supposed to cry in silence. "Hey… Hey, you're alright. That monster can't get to you right now."

"He can when I'm awake." Beer bottle. Right. Dipper put it out of his head for now - he couldn't always be the 'hero' - and instead slowly put his hand out. It took a bit, but the boy finally reached his own hand out. "'M Toby."

"Nice to meet you, Toby. I'm Dipper." Instead of letting go of his hand, Toby held on tighter and Dipper was able to pull Toby out with ease, setting him on the bed. "I can't promise you won't see that monster again, but right now you don't have to, okay? Remember, this is a dream, and in a dream you can do  _anything_."

Toby nodded slowly, looking at the beer bottle and narrowing his eyes. He looked utterly delighted when it disappeared. The door opened and another little boy ran in, looking like a  _clone_ of Toby. Twins, maybe?

The boy was rambling about magic and the woods, Dipper smiling as Toby gave a bright grin and nodded along to everything being said. It seemed the kid wasn't alone, at least. That was good.

Making his exit, Dipper sighed once the door was closed. He had just saved a kid from a nightmare. That… That was pretty cool and now he  _really_ wanted Bill to show up just so he could add 'nightmare vanquisher' to his long list of titles.

Yet here he was. Bill-less. Jeez, where was that stupid demon? He was usually here by now even when Dipper stayed up late! Grumbling and complaining, Dipper went back to his small adventure of opening door after door.

It felt like he had gone in a circle since he saw a glimpse of Mabel's dream, but… That couldn't be right because there was a  _new_ door. Which was wrong. New doors didn't just appear. Doors were either there or they weren't, they didn't just- Not unless someone was born or suddenly moved, but then Dipper should have seen it before. Well, only one thing to do to find out what was going on.

Quickly moving to push the door- To… To open the door- Huh. It was locked. Crossing his arms, Dipper stared down at the door and tapped his foot seven times before looking over both shoulders. Doors weren't supposed to be locked in the dreamscape. They just  _weren't_ \- Not unless it was someone with crazy amounts of power, so that ruled out a newborn or some new human moving into town

Mm. Dipper should probably just walk away, but, well. There was nothing so tempting as a locked door. Right, he'd just get the door open so he could take a  _peek_ , which, yeah, that was way easier said than done.

Lockpicking didn't work, kicking and punching didn't work, running at the door with his full speed didn't work, and even  _threatening_ the door didn't work. So, with aches and bruises that weren't real, but he could still feel, Dipper sighed and looked as pathetic as he could. "Please open?"

A lock clicked, the door swung open, and Dipper could only stare in utter disbelief. That… That was such  _bullshit_. Huffing, Dipper cautiously walked in, making sure to leave- Close. The door closed on him. Aha, right, well. He- He could just explore until Bill found him, then. Delightful.

As the dream settled around him, Dipper was surprised to feel rain hitting his skin and oh, he was nowhere  _near_ Gravity Falls right now, was he? He was in a city, but with it being night and nothing but the streetlamps on, it was a bit hard to tell where he was, exactly. It was also raining which made it… It was kind of peaceful. Dark and spooky, but  _peaceful_.

Rain was always peaceful, but there was something about rain at night in the middle of an empty street that just made it  _perfect_. Right- Focus, Dipper. This was someone's dream, so the dreamer had to be someone close by. Looking around, though, showed that the streets were totally and completely empty.

"Let go of me!" Okay, not as empty as he thought. Following after the voice, Dipper frowned as he saw someone around his age struggling and fighting against a group of rough looking men. Just as he was about to jump in and help, the entire world tilted sideways and Dipper found himself struggling to catch his balance as he landed in a place that was completely different.

"What the hell?" Looking around, he saw that same kid from before was in a  _cage_. Jeez, hell of a nightmare. That didn't just look like a cage from the pet store, either. "Hey, kid, are you okay?" No reaction. Okay, maybe he was just- Nope, the kid was looking around the room and he had looked  _through_ Dipper. Was that normal? That didn't see normal.

Okay, think, think, what had Bill said about dreams that couldn't be interfered with? Some dreams weren't dreams so much as- Oh. Oh, right.  _Memories_. Whoever this was, they were experiencing a memory, not a nightmare. That… That made this a whole lot worse if this was a memory.

It definitely explained why things felt blurry and why everything seemed dull and muted around the edges. The dreamer could probably barley recall this memory. Time seemed to move and speed up, Dipper watching as the kid was visited by person after person, all of them wearing dark clothing and nondescript faces. How much had he blocked out?

Dipper wasn't sure how much 'time' passed before the room changed and… Dipper didn't even know how to  _begin_ to understand what was happening. He was- Okay, focus. Facts.

The dream was crystal clear and sharp. Whatever this memory was, the dreamer remembered it better than anything else. Traumatic, definitely, then.

The dreamer was chained and looked to be drugged in the middle of what looked like a  _summoning_ circle. This was Gravity Falls - or at least the kid lived here, now, so that wasn't too surprising.

The entire cult surrounding the circle, though? That was… That was a bit surprising. Time seemed to stabilize and the room was chanting in creepy unison, Dipper picking his way over to the drugged out dreamer once he was sure no one could see him.

Bending down, he winced at the scars that littered the tan skin. He didn't remember seeing him around town anywhere, and Dipper was pretty sure he'd remember seeing him if he was  _his_ age. The scattering of freckles made him look a bit young, but the dazed green eye and roughly cut hair hiding one side of his face made him look so much older.

"You'll be okay. 'S just a dream." Yeah, no reaction, but that didn't stop Dipper from at least patting the other's head. Dipper knew  _he_ would be panicking if they were in different places. "It'll end soon and then I can help you have a good dream." Was this why the door was locked? Traumatic memories?

"I can't really help you, but, uh, I guess I can stay by you to help once it ends? Just don't hate me for seeing so much, okay? I won't tell, though. I'm pretty good at keeping secrets." Jesus, just imaging him or Mabel going through something like this… The dreamer was dirty and scarred and covered in fresh and old blood both. Now would be a great time for Bill to show up and try to put an end to this.

Feeling something in the air change, Dipper looked to where the cultists were getting louder. It- Dipper didn't have a good feeling about that, but whatever happened next the kid had at least survived. That was something.

What had they even been trying to summon? Dipper was new at the whole magic thing, yeah, but this looked to be pretty complicated stuff. Maybe- Ah, the dreamer twitched. A single green eye looked around the room and the chanting became louder and louder and then… Silence. It was utterly, completely still.

Then it wasn't. Dipper had only a few moments to wonder what would happen next before the dreamer  _screamed_ , withering on the ground as every inch of the circle lit up with a bright gold glow. Dipper himself was pushed  _out_ of the circle, and he couldn't stop himself from watching in shock instead of trying to do something.

He was used to the crazy and weird, but this- This was something else entirely. Had this kid been used as some kind of  _blood_ sacrifice to summon something? Whatever was happening, the gold lines were getting brighter and- Oh, jesus. Gold lines were appearing on the teen's  _skin_. It was like whatever they were trying to summon was instead using him as a  _vessel_.

Was it actually a demon that Dipper was seeing the dreams of? Some new demon that had come to town and was looking for trouble? That didn't- That didn't make sense, though! Why would Dipper be seeing a demon's dreams and why was the door so close to the door of those asleep in the Mystery Shack? It didn't make  _sense_ -

The screaming got louder and Dipper slammed his hands over his ears, not sure if it felt like he was watching someone die or if he was watching a horror movie. It was a bit of both because the fresh blood began to turn black and the golden lines seemed to  _burn_ their way into the skin. There was murmuring from the cultists and Dipper risked looking away from the dreamer to see that one was stepping forward- Ah. The idiot stepped on one of the glowing lines, foot sliding forward and smearing the chalk that had been used to draw the circle.

The screams grew even  _louder_ , Dipper jumping to his feet to try and figure out what he could do to help when an outlash of pure, raw magic was pushed out and threw every cultist back. It rammed into Dipper, too, but to him it felt like a summer breeze more than the gust that seemed to have taken out the cultists. He was pretty sure one or two had broken necks from where they had hit the wall.

"Almost over, almost over, almost over." That kid had to have been dead and the demon or spirit or whatever was now in control. Dipper didn't fancy facing the demon on his own once he knew Dipper was there in his dreams. Jesus. The golden lines were fading into what looked like a network of scars- No, more like tattoos. All the open wounds were gone, too, and the dreamer was no longer screaming.

"Yes… Yes!" A cultist had struggled to his feet and was cheering, look ecstatic. "Our Lord finally returns!" And here came the grandiose speech about-

"No, he hasn't." The voice was rough and raspy from all the screaming, but it was the same one that screamed to be let go just minutes - weeks? - ago.

"You're still alive? No- No! You were supposed to become his vessel!" So they really had been planning to kill the kid.  _Jesus_. Whoever this kid was, he had to be screwed up as all hell after something like that. "No matter, we'll attempt again-"

"I didn't become his vessel." The voice was rough and full of anger. It sounded like Bill, almost, when he was well and truly pissed. "He became mine." A blur of reality and the cultist that had stood was now screaming on the ground as blue fire consumed his body- Blue. Blue fire.

Slowly looking back, Dipper watched as the markings once more glowed with golden light, one eye the same bright color and the other one looked to have been  _gouged out_. Judging by how fresh it looked, Dipper would guess that the cult had done that to him sometime during the time skips in the dream.

The dreamer shook, magic flying around his body and lashing out at the entire room. Dipper knew the dream would be over soon, but it felt like he was as in much danger as the cultists. Dodging a falling rock, Dipper looked over and his breath stopped as the single eye caught his gaze. The dreamer was  _looking_ at him.

"Out." The building shook with the excessive magic and Dipper's mind was racing with questions and wondering how he was being seen  _now_ and just what had  _happened_. Had the broken circle caused this teenager to get the powers of whatever the cult tried to summon? What- "Get out."

"You, uh, you can see me?" It seemed like he was being spoken to, at least, considering all the cultists were unmoving and-  _Fuck_ , more rocks had fallen from the ceiling- Were they in a sewer- Fuck, fuck, fuck, they landed on one's head and there was  _blood_ , and-

"Pine Tree,  _get out_." Dipper's breath stopped just as  _familiar_ magic pushed against him, Dipper yelping as he was pushed out of a door and back onto the pathways of the dreamscape. Dipper heard a scream of pain and rage and loss and  _hatred_  before the door slammed shut, the scream still ringing in Dipper's ears.

"Pine… Pine Tree." Gold. Gold and black and magic and  _Pine Tree_. Memory. It hadn't been a dream, but a memory, and that- That-

Dipper hit the floor of his room with a jolt that had him gasping, eyes wide before he ran for the bathroom. He barely made it to the toilet before he started dry heaving, the images of blood and death and that  _missing eye_ near overwhelming his mind and fuck, fuck, fuck, that had been  _Bill_ -

"Oh, Pine Tree." A gentle hand landed on his back, Dipper gasping through tears and everything else as the hand rubbed down his spine. "Even demons sleep eventually, kid."

The sobs were loud and messy, but Dipper was… He was kind of okay with that. He felt like he was crying the tears that Bill wouldn't- Couldn't. He knew he wouldn't get answers. Bill would avoid this or maybe even wipe it from his mind entirely, but for now, for this second, he sobbed for what he had seen.

Bill Cipher had lied. He hadn't been some all-powerful demon from another dimension. He had been a kid with bad luck that had been through hell and given power that a human should never have.

Fuck, he had probably come up with all of it, hadn't he? Gravity Falls and that 'prophecy,' running through different worlds and making a menace of himself, and even pretending he was some great enemy. He had- For a while he had been stone and they had only woken him up because Gravity Falls had been in more danger than even he had brought, but-  _But_ -

What if that had been his plan? Demons couldn't die. Demons could never  _die_ , but they could be trapped. Locked away. They could sleep? What if Bill had spent centuries trying to find a way to be killed and that was the closest he could get and they had taken that  _away from him_  and-

"Ssh, little star, it's alright." Arms pulled him back against a warm chest, Dipper hiccuping as a hand settled over his eyes and darkened the entire world. "In the morning this will all be a bad dream."

"Bi-ll." Just a human. Just a human kid in over his head and lost and scared and confused and they had made it worse by making him pretend to be okay and- " _Bill_ -"

"Mason Sherman Pines." Bill's lips brushed against his ear and Dipper felt the magic before he ever heard what came next. " _Sleep_."

The images began to slip away already, magic tugging them out of his grasp as if he was nothing but an infant who couldn't keep a grip. He wouldn't let the magic take all of it, though. He kept that image of a young face and an old eye and he tucked it away deep where it would never be forgotten.

Even demons needed to sleep eventually, right? Demons needed to sleep and memories like that were always the focus. There would be a next time.

Next time he wouldn't run, either.


	6. deCIPHER

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Title: DeCIPHER

Alternate Universe: Post Show / Dipper age ~16

Rating: G+

Inspired By: deCIPHER - Madame Macabre

Summary: Dipper is sixteen and the mess that was Bill Cipher was supposed to have been left behind and yet, here he was, hearing that voice in his head. It would be fine and easy to ignore if Bill Cipher wasn't so good at telling the truth.

::

" _Come on, kid, I know you can hear me."_ Taking a steadying breath, Dipper firmly ignored the words, staring at the board and trying to focus on using the square root completion method to solve quadratic equations. It was getting harder. " _Hey, kid, I_ _ **know**_ _you can see me."_

Biting the inside of his cheek, Dipper refused to look at the golden glow that drifted by his vision, instead sliding his gaze over to where his sister was sitting at her own desk and taking notes in gel pens. She didn't seem to have any worries and wasn't looking towards the gold at all. " _Don't be jealous, Pine Tree. You're the only one who can see me."_

Just pretend he wasn't there. He just had to pretend he wasn't there. It had been three years since that summer in Gravity Falls. Dipper was now sixteen, Gravity Falls was completely normal (at least for Gravity Falls it was normal), and  _he_ was still nothing but stone. Whatever Dipper was seeing, it was probably just stress brought on by a new school year.

" _Piiine Tree. I know you're not an idiot."_  Dipper could feel the cool touch against his cheek, but he did his best to not flinch and instead looked resolutely at the board. " _You can feel it. You're probably the only one in your family that can, thinking on it. I bet not even Shooting Star is feeling it like you do."_

Yes, just a normal mental breakdown. That sounded about right, honestly. He had been due for one of those for a while now, so he was sure it would all be back to normal in the next few months. " _Hey, kid, things are 'bout to get crazy."_

"Ma'am, may I go to the bathroom!" Ignoring the odd looks thrown his way, Dipper waited only long enough to get a hall pass before he was speeding out of the classroom and straight towards the bathroom, throwing cold water on his face as soon as he could. Maybe this was a dream. It would make sense for it to be a dream, right?

" _Aha, nice thinking, kid! Shock to wake you up, right? Maybe you should try jumping, next. I heard you can't jump in a dream!"_

Bracing himself on the sink, Dipper looked up into the mirror. The only reflection was him, but there, just out of the corner of his eye, was the creature that he still had nightmares about. Maybe this was just another one of them.

" _Alright, alright, I'm sorry for trying to kill your family and take over the world. There, are you happy?"_  Definitely a dream. " _Right, you just sit right there and listen to me then. As I was saying before you ran off, things are about to get pretty crazy for you humans! You felt it, after all, didn't you?"_

Felt  _what_? Life was always crazy! Dipper had thought that Gravity Falls was the only place to attract the weird, but the weird was  _everywhere_ in the world. He had seen some pretty strange creatures just here in Piedmont, although granted they were harder to track down and even harder to see.

" _Oh, kid, I ain't talking about those run-of-the-mill gnomes you see every summer! I've seen more than you can imagine, kid, and this is going to beat it all."_  Okay, right, Dipper would just go and trust the liar. That would be  _great_.

Running his hands under the water some more, Dipper shook his head as if trying to dislodge the demon from his mind entirely. That would work, right? " _Yeesh, you're so stubborn. C'mon, Pine Tree, you're the only one who can hear me! You've felt it, I know you have. It's there every time you go down one of those kitchy suburban streets of yours."_

Kitchy? He was eighty percent sure that was just another word for cheesy and he was a hundred percent sure he only knew that because of Mabel- Ninety-nine percent. It could've come from Soos. " _You feel it, don't you? Warm summer day, the air's all hot and sticky, you're walking down the street, all the cars are gone, you hear those stupid bugs, and that haze that comes down… That's not a normal haze, Pine Tree."_

Don't listen. He was a liar. A conman. A thief. A poet. A psychic. A thaumaturge. He would only tell Dipper what he wanted to hear and what he already knew. Except… Except Dipper hadn't had the words to explain that feeling until now.

There were no words to explain the feeling he had when he had just been walking around their block after they had gotten home and it had still been so hot. Dipper was sweating and huffing for breath even as he smiled at being home, thoughts and heart still full of Gravity Falls. He had wandered into the middle of the road because, well, because it was empty. There was no one in sight and his mind was still full of Gravity Falls where people walked in the road all the time.

He had walked straight down the middle and he remembered the sweat dripping down the back of his neck. A dog had been barking a few streets over and one of those sprinklers to water the lawn had been going. It was a scene straight from a movie or something, but Dipper had felt this sense of…

The haze had felt like a physical presence against him, the heat powerful and strong and his breathing the only sound that seemed to matter in that moment. He had stopped in his steps and just breathed and felt  _something_. It was like a missed step. Something that should have been there but wasn't and the realization sent the mind  _reeling_.

" _I've heard things that could torture your soul to that hell of yours and back, kid, but_ _ **that**_ _sound is something that beats even me."_  The sound of something big. Something  _massive_  in a space where there should have been nothing. " _Come on, Pine Tree. If you join me then we can_ _ **both**_ _get ahead in what's about to happen. We'll be on top of it all and ready for what's going to come."_

Yeah. At what price? Pushing himself off the sink, Dipper spun around and stared straight into the single eye of Bill Cipher.

"Go to hell." Instead of being taken aback, the demon looked nothing but pleased. "Go to  _hell_." After everything he had done- He thought it would be that easy?

" _So you can hear me, then._ " Meeting Bill's gaze, Dipper didn't draw back as the demon floated closer. " _Oh, you're going to be something else, kid."_

Just like that, Bill Cipher was gone and Dipper was alone in his head. Thrown off balance, Dipper spun around, expecting to see gold and black and instead seeing nothing but a high school bathroom. It… It had been that easy? That- It couldn't have been that easy. Could it have?

Shaking his head again, Dipper took a breath before leaving. He had a math class to get to and he needed to tell… No. Not yet. It had probably been a one time hallucination due to stress. He didn't need to tell anyone.

He was fine.

::

" _I told you, Pine Tree, something big is coming."_  Twitching at the words, Dipper forced himself to not look up, instead staring down at the research he was doing instead of homework. The supernatural side of Piedmont had been growing in the last few weeks - well, maybe not growing, but there were more wild stories in the news than there should be. It was probably just some eclipse coming up or something. At least, he had thought that. " _They all sense it too, that's why they're getting so restless."_

"What, exactly, are they supposed to be sensing?" Okay, Dipper hadn't quite meant to actually acknowledge and talk to Bill, but, well. The demon was good at getting under his skin. "Nothing in my research-"

" _Pine Tree, you're thinking too much like old six fingers! This isn't something you can just read about. You have to_ _ **feel**_ _it."_ Yeah, well, he was pretty sure the only thing he was feeling was that fifth brownie he had. In his defense, Mabel had made them with chocolate chips this time. " _You really think those three books were the biggest mystery in the world? You think this dimension is the only one?"_

Well- Of course not. Ford had told Dipper all about his crazy adventures in the other dimensions. Dipper had seen the  _creatures_ from the other dimensions! He knew there was more to all of this than just what was here in their world, but he didn't see- " _You think this dimension is without magic?"_

That… " _Oh, Pine Tree. You raised the dead when you were a child and united a town to fight against demons. If you hadn't ruined my plans then I might have been almost proud! The thing is, though, is that you didn't quite ruin_ _ **all**_ _my plans-"_

"You're a stone statue in the middle of the woods where no one can ever find you. If you still think you won then I have some news for you." Snapping his book shut, Dipper climbed out of his piles of books and papers before grabbing his shoes and jacket. A walk sounded great right about now.

" _Pine Tree, I can help you! Really, I'm impressed with how far you've come, and you seem to the be the best bet to fight off what's about to happen to your little dimension."_  Ignore him, Dipper, just ignore him. " _It's been such a long time since the magic left."_

"First you tell me magic is real and now you're telling me it left- It's one or the other, Bill!" Ignore him, ignore him, just  _ignore him_. "Just leave me alone!"

Getting out onto the night streets, Dipper walked as fast as he could, breathing in cool fall air and feeling himself start to relax. " _Pine Tree!"_  Well, there went that. " _I'm offering you everything you ever wanted!"_

"Yeah, funny, but I've heard that before!" A blur of  _everything_ and Bill was suddenly in front of him, Dipper trying not to show his fear as he saw red instead of gold for a moment. "Go bother someone else."

" _Trust me, kid, I would if I could."_  Great. His luck to be forever stuck with a demon in his head. " _Kid, if you side with me then you could have everything!"_

"Mm, no thanks. Doesn't really sound like something I'm interested in." Walking past him, Dipper looked up at the night sky and  _shivered_.

" _You can sense it coming."_

"It's fall and night. I'm just cold."

It had been weeks since Dipper last saw Bill and as much as he tried to put the words out of his head… Something  _was_ coming. Whatever it was, it was enough to make Bill afraid. That couldn't be good for them.

"It's night, of course I'm a bit cold. It's September!" Dipper kept walking, trying to keep his breathing under control. "It's just the weather. Just like it was in summer. It's nothing but the weather."

" _Just keep thinking on my words, Pine Tree."_  Yeah, right. That was all Bill  _could_ do was put words in his head. Dipper would be better off forgetting them as quickly as he could. He would just forget them.

Simple.

::

" _You really shouldn't let go of this opportunity, Pine Tree. It won't last for very much longer."_  Staring out the snow covered forest of Gravity Falls, Dipper absently listened to his family laughing and partying down on the first floor of the Shack. " _All you have to do is shake my hand - my real one - and we can both deal with what's about to come."_

"Been a while since you brought this up." Ever since that autumn night, Bill had completely dropped his menacing comments and had instead made sarcastic remarks at school and sometimes helped him with his homework. Sometimes. Usually he cost Dipper a letter grade. "Is it because I go back tomorrow."

" _Next summer will be too late. I could spend the next few months convincing you, but by then we'd both be out of time."_  Rolling his eyes, Dipper looked to the floating demon that was hovering over his shoulder, gaze out the window as well. " _If that statue is destroyed, then I'll never be able to come back."_

"Oh, no." Smirking as the slap phased through him completely, Dipper looked back out the window. "Guess that means we'd be stuck together a while longer, then-"

" _No, kid, I'd_ _ **never**_ _be able to come back."_ Oh.

"Well, good, then. You tried to destroy the earth." He also made funny comments about the teachers Dipper hated, though. "You almost killed my family." He helped Dipper with his math homework when he forgot how to clear the fractions out of a problem. "You were almost the reason Stan lost his memory." Dipper hadn't had a nightmare in months.

" _Eh, it turned out alright in the end."_  God, no amount of 'human' gestures could ever redeem what Dipper was talking to now. This was a demon, plain and simple. There was no reason to feel guilt or pity. " _What if I change the deal?"_

"Nothing you say could ever make me release you, Bill. Just drop it." Standing up, Dipper stopped with his hand on the door when he heard the next words spoken into his mind.

" _If you agree to work with me to face what's coming, then after it's all over I'll return to being stone and stay out of the thoughts of you and all your friends and family for the rest of eternity."_

"You said I'm the only one you can talk to. Unless you were lying, then you'll never be able to trick someone else into setting you free-"

" _I wouldn't be able to if I was dead, either."_  To face what was coming… Dipper could feel it. Something in the air was different and the tenuous peace between normal and weird was about to shatter. " _Come on, Pine Tree, be smart about this… You know you've always been different. All those wild hunches and theories of yours back in that first summer? They were all right."_

They… They had been, hadn't they? Dipper had been right about all of it. Some of it had surprised him, yeah, but he knew from the start that there had been  _something_ lurking in those woods. He had been right. " _You were right from the start, Pine Tree. Don't start being wrong now."_

Not responding, Dipper was quiet as could be as he walked through the Shack, passing by the den and instead donning a coat as he slipped out into the cold air and falling snow. Taking a shuddering breath, Dipper shivered as he felt that  _pressure_ that had been growing since summer.

The two were silent as they set off through the woods, Dipper refusing to speak first as he trudged through snow and stumbled over fallen trees. He knew where to go - he made sure to always remember where he was.

Dipper was half uncertain as to what he would even do once he was there, but he didn't stop until he stumbled upon a picturesque clearing with a familiar stone statue covered in a fresh layer of snow. The area around was completely untouched and Dipper felt like he would be disturbing something if he were to take a single step forward.

"You can't ever hurt them. You can hurt them  _ever_  or the deal's off and you go back to being a statute immediately." Silence. There was no trying to argue or twist the words around. "A-And it's only until this threat or whatever is dealt with. Once it's not a threat, that's it, you go back in the stone."

Dipper took a shaky step forward when he heard nothing yet again. He paused in his steps for a moment, shaking fiercely. He shouldn't do this. It didn't matter how great the danger was, he shouldn't be  _doing this_. He stepped forward.

"If you get a physical form back then you can't use it to hurt anyone unless they really deserve it - like they've physically hurt or killed another person deserved it. You can't be seen by anyone in my family and you can't tell them what I did." Dipper was rambling off everything he could think of, trying to close each and every loophole he could. "Got it? You can't use this as revenge or another chance to destroy this town or anything else in any of the worlds or dimensions. You're just here to help protect them."

" _Well, what are you waiting for, Pine Tree? Shake my hand."_  Wrong. Dipper had such a strong feeling of  _wrongness_. He knew he was being played. This had to be Bill's plan from the start. It was a plan to get him out and there probably was no danger and since there wasn't that meant Bill could get out of the deal and he would be physical and for  _them_ to work together, it-

" _Don't worry, Pine Tree. They won't see it coming."_  The stone was warm beneath his touch and Dipper felt like he had just damned them all with the laughter he heard. Laughter that bounced off the trees and was as real as his breathing.

What had he done?


	7. Deal

Bonjour, mes chers! I was cleaning up some files and it seems I never uploaded this drabble? It's possible I have it uploaded somewhere and just can't find it, so enjoy it again if that's the case!

[Remember to follow me at  **ibelieveinahappilyeverafter**  on tumblr to see the cool things I'm always doing! You can keep up to date on the new things I'm doing and even read things that you won't see on this account. Check out my 'everafterlifeupdates' tag for more information on all of this.](http://ibelieveinahappilyeverafter.tumblr.com/tagged/everafterlifeupdates)

Title: Deal

Alternate Universe: None / Post Canon (Age of Twins ~ 16/17)

Rating: T (for mentions of blood and temporary major character death)

Warnings: Mentions of blood, physical trauma, and temporary major character death

Inspired By: I have no idea, I just found it in my google drive when cleaning

Summary: Dipper should know better than to ever make deals with a demon such as  _him_. Still, family is always more important, isn't it?

::

"Well, well, well, isn't  _this_ an interesting thing for me to wake up to!" The boisterous voice grated on the ears and echoed throughout the now silent woods, Dipper's vision fuzzy as black and white swirled at the edges of his world and-  _God_ , what had they  _done_. "Oh, oh, is it my birthday? I feel like it's my birthday with a gift like this!"

Body twitching on the dry, dead grass, Dipper dug his fingers into the lifeless earth as he looked up at hearing a soft whimper. Mabel was staring at him with wide, fearful eyes, entire body shaking. Autumn leaves were threaded through her hair and dirt mixed with blood streaked her cheeks. He wasn't sure which one coughed on the blood in their throats first, but he knew that soon the both of them were gasping for air.

"I said to not let them touch it!" The voice that yelled had Dipper covering his ears and no… No, he had heard enough of that voice to last a lifetime. No more. Please-  _Please_. Hadn't he paid enough for his mistakes? Hadn't he  _suffered_ enough?

"Oh, so it was just an accident. How disappointing- Ooh, but that means  _you_ didn't wake me- Hah! It wasn't you lot! It was  _them_ who did it! Oh, how  _beautiful_." Dipper couldn't help but wonder what was worse - running from hell or running straight into its arms.

"Enough. Let's finish this now. They know too much. Besides,  _that_ is weakened. It won't take much to put it down for good." Reality around them rippled and shifted and twisted and idiots.  _Idiots_. It had taken the sacrifice of  _everything_ to defeat him last time. They really thought he was weak?

"Now, now, didn't your mother ever teach you to not be rude." Jerking backwards as blue fire seared its way into the earth, Dipper shrieked at the pain that wracked his body. It hurt- It  _hurt_. The fire, though… When that brushed him, it didn't hurt. He knew what that meant.

"Di-pper." God, Mabel sounded as wrecked as he felt. It was all he could do to grasp her hand when she crawled close enough, the two linking their fingers together and holding on tightly. No matter what happened next… Well. At least they would die together, right?

"Oh, how sweet." Children. They were such  _children_. Had they really thought they could survive this? Had they really thought this was the best idea to beat such a dangerous enemy? It was so- It was-  _Children_. "You thought I was bad, huh? Didn't even think that there's more dangers in this world than me. You should be careful of crows, you know. They tend to gather around dead bodies."

"Release them, demon! The Sect of the Crow stands with God to spread His light and message! You shall not poison the world with your sin!"

"Ugh, disgusting as I remember." The fire flickered over his skin, Dipper focusing - or at least trying his best to - and staring at the circle that was burned into the dead ground. Circle. Oh… "You made a very dangerous enemy, you two. Honestly, you're always getting into such trouble!"

The circle wrapped around him and Mabel tightly, Dipper's gaze slipping and sliding more towards that hazy world of black and white. A scream stuck itself in his throat as his head was jerked up by fingers under his chin, Dipper feeling heat and power as a gloved hand held him in place- Gloved. Human. A  _human_ gloved hand.

"What are you doing, demon! Get away from them! Quickly- Quickly! Kill them before it regains power!" Power… Ah, that was right. They had been running- Leading. They had been  _leading_ them all and- It was cold.

"You humans are always so fragile." It hurt. Everything hurt - everything except that quiet voice, words near hummed out instead of spoken. The words were low, and smooth, and nothing like the high-pitched, wild glee from before. "Get in over your head, Pine Tree?"

The blue fires blazed around him and his sister, Dipper prying his eyes open (when had he closed them?) and looking into eyes of molten gold. Eyes.  _Eyes_. "Oh, Pine Tree." Gold and black and  _retribution_. "Look at you. All grown up."

Mabel's weak groan captured his attention for only a moment, the hand on his chin keeping him from moving. He was almost grateful for it. Almost.  _Almost_. So many almosts. He had almost been fast enough. He had almost been smart enough. He had almost been strong enough. He had almost managed to beat them. He had almost managed to save them. Almost, almost,  _almost_.

There was blood on his hands. His head was given a rough shake, Dipper's gaze skittering back to that molten, bubbling gold, attention utterly and completely captured. All he felt was the leather glove against his skin and the fading warmth of his sister's hand. "Oh, it seems she's dying too, now. Tell me, Pine Tree, how much family did your mistakes cost you?"

He thought he was so  _smart_. Now look. Blood. So much  _blood_. Ah, everything was quiet. Maybe that's why he had this sense of standing on the edge. No- Yeah. Yeah, that was it. It was standing on the edge of a cliff so high up you couldn't even see the ground and it was just one small step-

"Mason Pines." The only breathing he could hear was his. The sound of screaming and gunfire was so far away, but the only breathing he could hear was his.  _Only his_. Mabel… "Ssh, it's alright. I can fix everything. I can fix all of it. You know I can. You know my power."

Pine Tree. Only one person had ever… Right. They had escaped where they had been keeping them and they had lead them all into the woods that they knew so well and they had a plan. They failed. Blood and fear and human skin had touched the stone. Ah, the hand in his was limp. Cold. Empty.  _Lifeless_.

An intake of air had Dipper coughing, vision swimming before he felt warm human skin instead of a leather glove-  _Human_. "What do I want? Isn't it obvious? I can fix it, but I want my freedom." No.  _No_. His family in exchange for the entire world? He could never- Mabel.  _Mabel_. "It may not be worth them, but isn't it worth  _your_ world?" Cold. Cold and lifeless. "Mason Sherman Pines."

Don't trust him. Don't let him in your head. Don't listen to him. Don't make the same mistakes. Turn away. Turn away, turn away,  _turn away quick before he catches you_ \- Save them? "Every single one of them." The gunshots grew closer and the screaming grew louder. "You know what I want."

Ah, well. In that case, it wasn't a competition at all, was it? It never was. Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay,  _okay_.

Mabel's hand fell out of his and another took its place. Warm ( _burning_ ), hard ( _painful_ ), and tight ( _greedy_ ). "You know what to say, don't you? Well?"

Bill Cipher.

The word was torn out of him with a single, last breath.

" _Deal_."

_I give you everything._

::

"-ipper. Dipper! Wake up, sleepy head!" Jerking awake with a gasp of air, Dipper clutched at his side where the knife had been stabbed into him far too deep- And… Skin. Nothing but smooth skin that was only broken up by the appendix scar he had since he was nine. Which was impossible - completely impossible. He had just been bleeding out in the woods and dying and oh, god he had said- "Dipper?"

"Okay- I'm okay. I guess I had a nightmare." Dipper shook under the hand his sister placed against his forehead, looking frantically around the bus. They were on a bus? When had they… It was rumbling along, though, the sight of trees passing them by and the highway bumpy under the wheels. There were only three other people, one on his phone, another asleep against the window, and one hiding obvious animal ears under a hat. "We're… We're on a bus."

"Well, yeah. C'mon, bro-bro, we're going to visit the Grunkles. Re- Remember?" Mabel looked at him with eyes full of worry, Dipper only giving a shaky nod in response. "It's June fifteenth." Right. The start of summer. They were going to Gravity Falls. "Maybe you should try to get some more sleep until we get there."

"Yeah- Yeah, sorry, Mabel. I just had a really bad nightmare, I guess." Settling back and closing his eyes, Dipper pulled his hat down low enough to block out the sun, sighing as the world began to darken. Nightmare. It was just a nightmare, he told himself. Only that.

Then his world was filled with black and white and a loud, bright laugh that shook the very foundation of reality.

" _Well, well, well. Didn't that 'Grunkle' of yours ever teach you not to make a deal with a demon, Pine Tree_?"


	8. Unending Dreams

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* * *

Title: Unending Dreams

Alternate Universe: BillDip Husband AU

Pairing: BillDip

Rating: General Audiences

Inspired By: Prompt given by girlfriend.

Summary: Toby Pines, the latest member of the Pines' clan, knew magic before he knew the Pines family. He knew what it felt like to have his dreams interfered with, but sometimes he didn't mind the dreams he was given so much.

::

Toby had only been a Pines for a few weeks now, but he had known magic before he ever known the Pines. Maybe he didn't know it like he knew now, but he still knew magic. Now that he was a Pines, he knew Magic. So, really, it was easy to tell that someone was watching him in his dreams just as it was easy to tell that he was  _dreaming_. It was painfully obvious, really, as not only was he having a tea party with his mom and TJ, but he wasn't stuttering through his words or curling up in fear. It was a good dream. It was a  _happy_ dream. The thing was, though... The thing  _was_  that Toby was just as happy awake, now. He didn't need these dreams anymore.

They were still really nice, of course, and Toby made sure to take a moment to be thankful for them. He hugged his brother and told him all about the newest supernatural creatures he had run into, TJ hanging off of every word and laughing in excitement for what had become of his life. He also made sure to hug his mom as tight as he could, breathing in scents he had almost forgotten and kissing her cheek as he left the two to enjoy the picnic that had been made for them.

Even though  _he_  made the very best of dreams, Toby knew when it was just a dream. It never felt real until he heard words, after all. In his dreams he would speak, but the returning voices were like warm lullabies washing over him. When he heard  _him_ , though, it was real as could be. "What do you think about the sunset? Too much?"

"It was perfect." Ah, Toby did so love being able to talk without tripping over his words like he tripped over his feet. Staring up at the dream demon that was Bill Cipher, Toby only grinned wider and held his arms out. "Thank you, Papa."

"Aw, anything for my sweet little Stardust." Bill was shifting into his human form and scooping him up at once, nuzzling at the top of his head and holding him close. The slice of sunny warmth and love had been nice, but  _this_ feeling could never be beat - or replicated. No matter how beautiful the dreams, reality was sometimes better. "You know, most people never even realize when I'm here."

"Yeah, but I'm a Pines," Toby pointed out, wondering if he should ask to be set down. Bill's arms were probably tired since Toby was ten and not that light- Oh, right, demon strength. He could enjoy this without guilt, then. "Pines are stubborn."

"That they are, Stardust, that they are. Speaking of stubborn Pines, why don't we go check on Dipper?" A chance to play in his dreams with Bill  _and_ Dipper? Oh, Toby wasn't passing that up for anything in the world! …Wait.

"Can I even leave my dream?" He knew Bill and Dipper could leave their own dreams since they were demons, but Toby had never thought that he'd be able to go into someone  _else's_  dreams.

"You can when you're following a dream demon," Bill winked, tucking Toby close with one arm before freeing the other to snap his fingers. A door popped into existence like one might in a cartoon show, Toby staring with wide eyes. For as much as he was getting used to magic, something like that was still pretty amazing. "Want to see what Pine Tree is dreaming about?"

"I dunno," Toby hummed, already reaching out and opening the door, Bill careful to not let him fall. "That seems like an invasion of privacy." Ooh, they were in the forest! This was a good dream already!

"We really should turn back," Bill agreed, walking through the door. Toby felt a sharp prick around the area of his chest, a hand shooting up to feel at the area, and, huh. That was weird. That was strange- Not right- No, it wasn't not right, but it wasn't not not right. It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad. Strange. Freeing- Ah, that was the word. Freeing. "Most people aren't really meant to leave their dreams. Let me know if it gets worse, okay?"

"I'll be okay." Settling down, Toby looked around the woods. They were starting to become as familiar to him as they were to all the Pines. It seemed right now they were in the woods in the late afternoon. "I have you protecting me."

"You're definitely Pine Tree's kid and Shooting Star's nephew with how you're being adorable like that to get your way." Yeah, Toby shamelessly modeled himself after Dipper and Mabel, but it  _worked_. "Speaking of our dear Pine Tree, where is he…"

A few minutes of walking through the woods and Toby finally spotted him, tugging at Bill's waistcoat and pointing to two figures reclining at the edge of a lake. "Is that Daddy?" Dipper looked like he couldn't be older than fourteen or fifteen. It was… It was strange. He still had the hat, though. That was good.

"Nice eyes, Stardust." As they got closer, Toby saw that Dipper had his eyes closed and was breathing peacefully, head propped up on someone's lap. It took a moment for Toby to realize it was a younger Bill, this one dressed more simply than Bill normally was. The two weren't talking or even being all cuddly, they were simply curled up together and relaxing. At least, they were until Bill spoke. "I have to say, I'm a little flattered."

"That's because you're an egotist, darling." Ah, Dipper had probably known they were there from the second the door had formed. Toby watched as Dipper cracked an eye open, swirls of blue magic burning inside them and brushing across the stars on his forehead. "I'm pretty sure dragging our son through dreams doesn't count as him peacefully sleeping."

"I'm still asleep technically," Toby pointed out, wiggling to be set down. The teenage Bill disappeared as he touched the ground, Toby immediately launching himself towards Dipper and gleefully snuggling into the returning hug he was given. "Hi, Daddy."

"Hi, Toby," Dipper laughed, kissing at his forehead. "Were you having good dreams, at least?"

"The best, but this is better." Hook, line, and sinker. Dipper was so easy to get attention from. Bill was, too, but Bill always knew when he was being manipulative. At least, he thought that was the right word. Bill still looked proud and Dipper was cuddling him even more, though, so Toby would take that as a win. "Papa was teaching me about dreams."

"That's right, I was," Bill nodded, easily falling into the lie and expanding it. "I was just telling him how I can get energy from dreams. Isn't that right, Stardust?"

"Yup!" Toby nodded, grinning widely at Dipper's expression that showed he knew they were lying, but he couldn't prove it. It was great- Funny-  _Good_. It was good. "I wanna go on an adventure."

"An adventure?" Dipper raised an eyebrow, standing up with Toby and changing back to his usual adult form with nothing but a shimmer of magic. Dipper and Bill's magic was always great- Addicting, almost. Familiar. Definitely familiar. "And what kind of adventure do you want to go on, Toby?"

"We…" Any kind of adventure in the world, huh? Well, there was really only one option for that, wasn't there? "We should have a picnic."

"A picnic, huh?" Bill's voice was quiet as his bare palm cupped Toby's cheek, Toby feeling a rush of love and warmth and happiness and sheer joy and adoration and possessiveness, and everything else in the world that was amazing. Toby cuddled towards the feeling at once, all tension leaving him at the warm skin pressed against his own.

"I think a picnic sounds great," Dipper chuckled before standing up and carry him along, Toby settling back down and stifling a yawn. "A picnic and then some  _peaceful_ sleep."

"This is peaceful," Toby argued, limp against Dipper's chest as he yawned again, eyes slipping shut. He promised himself it would only be just for a moment or two. "'S perfect." Then again, he could let himself rest for a few minutes, at least, because this was a dream that would continue even when he woke up.

A dream that never ended… It was a good one.


	9. Fallen Stars (Aren't The Only Ones On Fire)

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Title: Fallen Stars (Aren't The Only Ones On Fire)

Fandom: Gravity Falls

Alternate Universe: Pre/Early Show, Non-Demon Bill Cipher

Pairing: None, but can be read as pre-BillDip

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: None

Inspired By: Tumblr Prompt issued by anonymous on October 4th, 2014 - "Httyd inspired au. Bill is a magical talking dragon that Dipper befriends. Shenanigans happen."

Summary: Dipper is just settling in to Gravity Falls for the summer when he decides to explore the woods and promptly gets himself lost. While he knew Gravity Falls could be strange, he hadn't been expecting anything like this.

Author's Comments: So, it's not really HTTYD inspired anymore, but I hope you enjoy the magical talking dragon Bill, nonetheless! If you're still on tumblr, of course… (I originally made this joke to show how old the prompt was, but now with the purge going on… Yikes.)

::

"Okay. Take a deep breath, Dipper. You're fine." Unsurprisingly, saying these words did not, in fact, make Dipper fine. If anything, it made him even worse. Hearing his voice, alone and quiet and far too small, made the forest around him seem even  _worse_. "It's not like you're lost or anything, after all!"

At least, it would be nice to say he wasn't lost, except at one point all the trees had started looking the same as everything else and Dipper couldn't even begin to guess which way was out. Whatever path he had been walking on had long ago disappeared. "Right. Okay, great, yeah, right, I'm just going to become a statistic. I'm going to be a statistic and not even a fun one. I'll just be what not to do when you get lost in the forest, a lesson by the dead Dipper Pines."

Right, okay, speaking was  _definitely_ making it worse. His voice didn't even  _echo_ when he was this deep into the woods. It was like every forest nightmare he had ever had from the time he was  _born_. Right. Right, okay. He just had to keep calm.

"I've only been walking for an hour, anyways, so it's not like I could have gotten that far." See, alright, talking to himself made Dipper even more afraid, but staying silent was  _worse_. It was… It was quiet in these woods - empty. He knew he was kind of a city boy, but woods like these shouldn't be quiet.

The trees seemed taller than the Redwood forest he and his family had visited a few years ago, which, yeah, didn't think that was possible. There they were, though. They were tall enough that an entire secret civilization could probably be hidden among the branches and  _watching,_ and Dipper wouldn't even know it.

Ah, okay, bad thought, that was a bad thought, now he was thinking about the fact he might be about to die. "So, uh, if anyone's there? I'm just trying to get out, okay! Just wanted to let you know that! Trust me, if I knew which way to go- Ah! Compass!"

Of course he had a compass,  _duh_. His parents wouldn't let him leave the house for this summer trip until he had packed everything to survive in the woods, never mind the fact that they were just going to stay with their great-uncle in his tourist trap. Still, Dipper was grateful for it now as he dug around for the compass and clicked it open.

"Okay, okay, okay, so, uh, the Mystery Shack is… north?" Dipper was pretty sure he had gone south into the woods. Actually, that might have been wrong. He might have gone north. He wasn't certain, but he could at least finally pick a direction and stick with it. He'd eventually find a road or the Mystery Shack at some point.

Waiting for the compass needle to stop spinning, Dipper swallowed and shuffled nervously as that oppressive silence pressed down around him. It felt like something was  _watching_ him, but it had been silent for what felt like hours. He  _had_ only been walking for an hour, right?

"Come on, come on, come on, just tell me which way to go, already." The compass needle was still spinning. It didn't even  _waver_ , it just kept spinning around and around as if it couldn't tell which direction was which, but that was impossible. The only time a compass could act like this was when someone was right over one of the poles. Dipper was in Gravity Falls,  _Oregon_. Nothing interesting happened in Oregon!

"My compass is broken. Great. I'm lost in the woods with a broken compass." Taking a moment to try and steady his breathing, Dipper shivered as he shoved his hands in his pockets and started moving in what he hoped was the way out. It was starting to get  _freezing_. He knew it was still afternoon and everything, but it felt cold with all the trees that were blocking the sun out.

"If something wants to eat me, maybe please consider not doing that." The call was half-hearted at best, Dipper not sure if he was tired and afraid or just tired. It was hard to keep getting scared when he hadn't seen anything since he stepped into the woods.

He was just starting to think of yelling at the top of his lungs until a park ranger or someone found him, but just as he opened his mouth, he heard the sound of a snapping branch from  _behind_ him.

It felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over him as Dipper's body went rigid, shivers running down his spine and making his entire body shake as he tried to gather the courage to at least look to see what was about to kill him. The courage didn't come, and Dipper felt like he was shaking to pieces as his breathing turned quick enough that he was afraid of triggering an asthma attack.

The woods in front of him were completely empty with nothing but a ground full of dead, decaying leaves and dry dirt that hadn't seen rain in weeks. The canopy of leaves kept the sun from ever touching him, and Dipper could only occasionally see flashes of sunlight flickering across the forest floor. With how dark it was, it was like the world had been plunged into a colorless, black-and-white place that was filled with shades of grey.

" _Dipper_." Body unfreezing all at once, Dipper spun around and almost lost his balance as leaves were kicked up around him. Heart racing, Dipper was ready to stare death straight in the eyes and at least try not to scream. This was it and this was how it was going to end, and Dipper was about to… be alone?

There was nothing. He spun around the entire area, but there was absolutely nothing there no matter how hard he looked. "He… Hello?" Silence was the only thing to greet him and Dipper took a hesitant step back- Or maybe he took a hesitant step forward? "Is anyone there?"

This forest wasn't normal. He had said from the beginning that Gravity Falls wasn't a normal kind of town, but this deep in the woods and it was- It was  _wrong_. It felt wrong and terrifying and  _old_. The trees didn't look like something that should have been there and the more Dipper walked, the more it felt like the trees were  _different_. It definitely felt older, here. It felt like the trees around him had been there longer than Dipper would  _ever_ live.

"So, I'm just going to go, now? Sorry, uh, ancient and possibly evil spirits?" There. That would appease whatever had just been behind him, right?

" _Dipper_." Oh, aha, nope, no, it wouldn't! It definitely wouldn't! " _What a curious name._ " Okay, yeah, no, nope, aha, definitely not just in his head anymore.

"I, um, it's a nickname?" He was talking to the evil ancient spirit that roamed the woods he was lost in. Why was he  _talking_ to the evil ancient spirit? Oh, that was right. Dipper was an idiot. "You know. The Big Dipper? The constellation?"

" _Oh_?" There was a sound behind him that had Dipper turning quickly, his breath trapped in his lungs and swirling around his chest with nothing but fear as he saw only a quick flash of gold. " _Why is a little star lost in my woods?_ '

"I, ah, um, I was exploring?" He had definitely seen something gold, just now, but maybe it was just sunlight? He'd like to believe that, at least, but everything really did look colorless, now. He couldn't even tell what color the leaves were that were no doubt hundreds of feet above his head. "I didn't mean to intrude or trespass or anything like that."

" _So much politeness for a human._ " That was… good? " _Maybe I shouldn't eat you, just yet._ " Yep, yeah, definitely good- Spinning around at what sounded like something being dragged across the leaves, Dipper swallowed as he yet again saw nothing but a flash of gold.

"I would really like to not be eaten, if that helps? Please? I mean, I'm only twelve and I'm kind of small, so it's not like you'd get much out of me, right?"

" _On the contrary, little star. I think I could have a great deal of fun with you_." Oh, Jesus, Dipper wasn't sure he had ever been more scared in his life. It felt like his body wanted to shake itself apart and he was honestly not even aware of whatever it was he was saying. He could probably sell his soul right now and not even  _realize_ it. " _Perhaps there's a reason you became lost in my woods._ "

"Your-" The rest of his words died in his throat, Dipper turning around and falling completely still as he stared at what could only ever be called a  _dragon_.

" _Hello, Dipper._ " The words were hissed into the air like the steam of a furnace and Dipper felt his knees shake before he hit the ground and this… This was going to be hard to explain when Stan and Mabel asked him why he was late to dinner.


	10. Summer Nights

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Title: Summer Nights

Alternate Universe: Post Canon

Summary: Dipper Pines takes a late night stroll through the woods and ponders on the mysteries of Gravity Falls. He never had been able to turn away from a good mystery, he had found.

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 A groaning, creaking noise seemed to echo throughout the entire house and Dipper Pines froze as if he had a gun pressed to the back of his head. After an eternity of nothing besides the distant noise of cicadas screeching into the summer night, Dipper slowly let himself continue to creep down the stairs again. The old wood, smoothed from years of use, was cold under his bare feet as he did his best to hurry without making noise.

While he would have liked to have gone out when the sun was still actually  _up_ , that was easier said than done when he lived with some of the nosiest people to ever live - and while he could handle his family laughing at some of the odd things he did, he didn't fancy having the cold, worried looks that would be given to him if they ever found out about  _this_.

As it was, Dipper had his own way to do things, and that involved throwing out a ragged jean backpack, old scuffed sneakers, and then himself out the kitchen window that rested over the countertop. It would have been nice to go out the door like a normal person, but he lived in the house of a conman and a (possibly) mad scientist and he had a curfew (even though he was about to be  _seventeen_ ). The doors were probably locked and booby-trapped, so, window it was.

Tossing himself out the short drop, Dipper ducked and rolled to get rid of the sharp jolt to his ankles, resting on the ground with a little smile as he quickly moved to slip his shoes on. Another heartbeat and he had his backpack on and was quickly making his way towards the woods that made up Gravity Falls.

The cicadas were even louder outside with no wood or glass to deafen their cries, but Dipper didn't mind the noise. It served to be a great reminder that he was spending yet another summer in Gravity Falls - his fifth one since that first summer so long ago. While things had never become normal, they had never had any problems like they had that first year.

That didn't mean Dipper had been asleep on the job, though! While the original journals were recovered and tossed into the bottomless pit where they belonged, Dipper had begun his own journal and had filled it with every scrap of information on Gravity Falls that he could. While his Grunkles would probably kill him and burn the book when they found out, it was still something that set Dipper's incessant itch to explore and discover at ease.

There had been many nights like this one where Dipper walked through the woods as if they were his backyard, footsteps near silent and breathing easily falling into something that seemed to belong to the forest more than the town. There were nights (long, sleepless,  _horrible_  nights) where he could walk into the forest and not come back out until the sun started to rise, all nightmares gone and sleepiness a soft thing itching behind his eyes.

This was not one of those nights, though. This was a night where Dipper slinked between the shadows with more grace than he used to have, body toughened and trained through relentless years of what he knew to be out there. Gravity Falls wasn't the only place to attract the weird, after all, and Dipper knew that better than most by now.

He also knew that what he was doing was pure and utter madness, but, well… Dipper knew himself. He knew his fears and his obsessions, and he wore them well. His Grunkle Ford and him were alike in more ways than one, and Dipper knew that his need to discover (to  _understand_ ) was shared by the man. He also knew that need could be a weakness.

It was dangerous to want to know everything about the world. The need to answer the mysteries that no one could figure out… Dipper had seen where those questions could lead. He saw it in the way his Grunkle Ford's hands still shook some days as he looked at them. He also saw it in the way Ford looked at Stan as if he was an illusion about to disappear. Dipper knew his weakness, well. They were always the same and they always would have led him here.

"Hey, Bill." Dipper lingered in a patch of shadows at the edge of the clearing that contained a simple stone statue (or so they all thought). "'S almost been a year since I last saw you."

Bill Cipher. A monstrous creature who had no care for life or those living and had only wanted to see the world  _burn_. He was a demon from another world that had hidden behind sweet lies. He was a demon who had dressed as a guardian and he had lost (hadn't he?).

"Sorry I didn't get to visit in winter. You know how the others are about, well, everything. Mabel seemed convinced we would all die if we didn't spend every second together this year." Dipper kept his voice even and almost cheerful as he stepped into the small clearing properly.

A beam of moonlight perfectly fell over the statue of Bill Cipher and highlighted the moss and vines that had begun to claim him. Dipper knew that even if the earth swallowed him whole, he would still be there with a single hand outstretched (waiting).

"Just thought you might like some updates and stuff." Dropping his backpack, Dipper bent down and unzipped it, keeping his head bowed for a moment. "First, Lazy Susan got married to that nice old lady who became a cook at the dinner two years ago. They're pretty happy from what I saw."

The silence here was always… wrong. It wasn't unnatural or scary or like something Dipper might expect in a tense scene in a horror movie. It was just wrong (because  _he_ should never be  _quiet_ ). Dipper did his best to ignore the silence of the woods as he brought out an old, patched up blanket and shook it out.

"Gideon's been working on that business of his for reformed prisoners. He's basically become the mob, I think, but no one's had any problems with him and he always kind of looks out for the townspeople. I think he kept Candy under a twenty-four-hour guard after this one guy wouldn't leave her alone."

Spreading the blanket out on the ground in front of the cold, silent statute, Dipper took a seat so he was only a foot or so away, dragging his backpack along with him. His journal was tucked away inside and covered with a cloth cover that made it look boring (it was better that way). A few other things were tucked away and Dipper brought out a few incense sticks and his lighter, first.

"McGucket's been doing a lot better. I don't think he'll ever get all of his memories back, but he's made up with his wife and son and they've been spending more time together. He also started wearing actual clothes, again, but I don't think he's gotten the whole shoes concept, yet." Clicking the lighter a few times, and glaring until it worked, Dipper lit the incense sticks, blew out the flame, and pushed them into the dirt until they stood up on their own.

"He also took Pacifica on as an apprentice and oh, man, we always knew she was manipulative, but she is  _crazy_ smart. I think McGucket found his successor for building crazy robots of death once he retires from it all. She's actually been spending more and more time around Mabel lately, too. She visited us up in Piedmont a few months ago, too." The incense wafted smoke up into the air and Dipper took a deep breath of the scents - one lavender and one sage. "I'm trying some new scents, this time. Lavender is for healing, I think, but I definitely know sage can be used for cleansing. Maybe it'll keep the birds away before they get any ideas."

Dipper pulled out a pair of garden shears, next, shifting up to lean on his knees as he began clipping at the vines that were wrapped around the base of the statue. The stone was warm under his fingertips. The sun had set hours ago.

"Stan and Ford are doing okay. They're back from their latest trip for the summer and man, the stories they have. I still can't tell if Stan is lying about the kraken they went up against or not. I would believe it, but he told me they beat it by giving it peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Pausing in his clipping, Dipper wrinkled his nose. "Actually, yeah, I could believe that after being in this place for so long."

Dipper continued like that, tidying up the statue, making sure there were no chips in it, and chatting about everyone in Gravity Falls he could think of. Eventually, he lowered himself back down onto his blanket and crossed his legs, staring up at Bill and thinking about the first time he had found himself staring at the stone statue.

He had honestly thought Bill had been destroyed after that last battle, and it wasn't until the summer after, when he was thirteen going on fourteen, that he had stumbled across Bill during one of his daily exploration trips. He had screamed himself into a wreck and had almost had a heart attack.

He wasn't sure when he had started to visit the statue on a daily basis, but at first it had been more of a way to work out his anger. It was good to scream and yell at a being that had once been all-powerful (no matter how scared he was that hand would move). Eventually his ranting had started turning into one-sided conversation and now Dipper had near made a ritual out of it.

"You know… I think we could have gotten along in different circumstances." Bill Cipher had been a terrifying demon that would no doubt haunt his nightmares until the very end, but he had been so… He was Bill Cipher – the last great mystery of Gravity Falls. "We both like puzzles and mysteries and being smarter than everyone else. We would have either been best friends or tried to kill each other."

Propping his cheek up on a closed fist, Dipper blew out a small breath and gave a half-smile as he looked up at the now clear statue, incense sticks long since burned out. "You know, Mabel likes to believe that everyone has some good in them. I can't stop thinking about what your good could have been."

Dipper wasn't sure how long he sat there, but eventually he noticed the sky was lighter than it had been. "Looks like it's time for me to go." The cool night air was still cool and brisk, but Dipper could feel the hint of promise that the sun would be back. "Don't wanna worry the others too badly, after all. Don't worry, though, I'll be back in a few days. Maybe I'll try some of this bubblegum incense I found."

Standing up, Dipper brushed himself off, hands stilling and breath stopping short when he heard a whisper of a sound that hadn't been caused by him. He would have passed it off as a creature or animal, but nothing came this deep into the woods of Gravity Falls (nothing alive, at any rate). For a moment, the sound could have been words - two words that formed a name that still made him clutch at his hat and shake in fear.

"Like I said, Bill." Dipper looked up at the stone statue where the hand looked as if it had stretched out even more than before. "I'll be back soon."

Dipper Pines had never been able to ignore a good mystery, after all.


End file.
